The Case
by Nerk123
Summary: Kate Morrison, a detective with the NYPD is on the hunt for a man who thinks he's a vampire.  Turns out he is and she ends up in the hands of the legendary mercenary Tony Redgrave.
1. Chapter 1

I don't own Devil May Cry

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Kate was…bewildered to say the least. She, among others, had been on the same case for almost three weeks now. Seven murders. Each within two blocks of a little street, believed to be the killers home, or at least his hangout. The problem was that none of the victims had anything to do with each other, save two brothers, who were murdered together.

And so there Kate was. Sitting the corner of a disgusting, unnamed dive in the slums. Locals called it the Love Planet. Not an official business establishment. Most in the area never got permits to conduct anything. But they still did it. Kate's nose drifted over the dull musk of sweat and alcohol, a lot of alcohol. Most of it was simple beer, though a sharp scent of rum and brandy wafted over to her from the adjacent corner. Near the bartender.

People around the Slums were superstitious. Kate saw many walking around with charms, bracelets, and other trinkets. The problem was that here, they all believed. Every last one of them, and they just had to defend themselves, some with guns to be sure. Not the best place for her to slip up. Not on that but the murders. People here thought it was a vampire.

Each victim had two puncture wounds in the neck. Just like in the movies. The DA thought the killer was a vampire lover. Some one so obsessed they actually believed they were a creature of the night. Morons. Kate tried to casually get the attention of one of the waitresses, a blonde woman in a bunny suit, but failed as she snuggled up against a short, chubby man of obvious Italian ancestry. A Ferino.

The Ferino's were a national gang, much like the Hell's Angels but with more legitimate fronts. Few in the precinct even thought of them as a mob, just a wealthy family with a whole lot of nieces and nephews. Some more illegal than others. But they had close ties to another family. The Redgraves.

The Redgraves were a close-knit group and the family they were names after even closer. No one in the DA had anything on them, or even knew who they all were. They were supposedly guns for hire and ran jobs with and for the Ferino's occasionally. They were the mercenaries, mercenaries feared. Kate didn't know anything else about them. Whenever she asked some one all she got was an earful about their prodigal son. Tony.

However secretive the Redgraves were, everyone knew Tony Redgrave. Kate had never seen him but he was known to take jobs solo, jobs a battalion of soldiers wouldn't touch, and come back without a scratch. And he would usually itch for more too. He was a legend. People had apparently seen him when a gigantic tower rose from the ground but the same witnesses said they saw him falling from the top of the tower. Reports all said he had died from the free fall.

Awkwardly brushing her shoulder length blonde hair between her fingers Kate tried to appear shy and uncomfortable, hoping some one would notice her. Once she had some one's attention, it was only a matter of time before she knew what was going on around here.

The door crashed open. Kate could have sworn the thing should've been broken but it swung back with surprising resilience. A young man entered and snickered at the poor door. He refitted his graying pants and shook the rain from outside like a dog. He sauntered towards the bar, running a gloved finger through his silvery hair, allowing it to part above his forehead and drape over the sides of his boyish grin.

She saw him lean in and whisper something to the bartender, who nodded and pointed towards the Ferino in the corner. The boy slapped some coins on the table and moved with the same grace as before.

The girl in the bunny suit was soon on her feet. She rubbed a finger down the boy's chest, along his tight red shirt and along the skintight black material underneath it. Directly under a long silvery chain that disappeared into his shirt. Ignoring her he clapped hands with the Ferino and sat beside him. Kate's head jumped up as she saw a small piece of paper pass between them. A deal was going down. What kind it didn't matter. Legally in a place like this was enough to warrant an arrest, or at least a seizure.

The boys deep blue eyes pierced her as she clicked her safety off. It was impossible that he had heard her but she couldn't help but feel he did. Somehow. Still in character Kate snuggled in beside the boy, across from the Ferino. "Hi, I'm Kate." She announced, as sultry as she could muster.

The boy didn't say anything but the Ferino flashed red. "Enzo. 'xcuse us but we've got business to conclude here." He said sharply. "But don't worry, we'll be around for a while after."

Kate smiled and snuggled closer to the boy, "Really? What kind of business?" She feigned naivety. She couldn't help but notice the boys hand on her gun, she heard the click of her safety and his hand was gone. She froze and her eyes widened.

"I did a job for him." The boy muttered, in a more manly voice than she would have thought a face like that could have had. "Enzo, I'll see you later." The boy pushed her a little and then shoved past her into the bar floor.

"But you're payment…" Enzo protested, "And the night is young."

"My nights over. You can give the money to the orphanage. Those kids need the clothes." The buy uttered.

"But…" Enzo shook his head, "But that's a whole lot for some orphans. Besides you haven't paid the rent on that place in months."

"Fine. Pay the rent for me with it first. Then give it to the kids. I don't need it. Call if you've got any more jobs."

"But…" Enzo flustered after him, "There's a murderer about. Guys been saying it's a vampire, like they exist…"

"You'd be surprised at what's out there Enzo." The boy interjected strongly.

"Don't matter what he thinks he is. People want him taken care of." Enzo finished unceremoniously.

The boy shrugged and walked out the door. Kate started breathing again and looked at Enzo. The Ferino looked scared, or at least too confused to know what he was. Kate put her face back on and was about the pry for information when she felt the sudden urge to follow the boy out the door. She held the feeling in for a little while before bolting after him.

Kate snatched her coat and draped it over her. Walking out into the cold night she looked side to side but the boy was nowhere to be seen. No one else was on the street, save a bum huddled in an open alley. Down the street she saw the crumbled remains of a sad apartment building with red neon on it. It spelled a name, but Kate couldn't tell from that distance and in the rain.

"Lost girlie." A man stumbled onto her, putting his hand over her shoulder. He smelled of alcohol so much Kate choked on it. "Shouldn't be out at night at this time of night." He slurred, "Dangerous 'round her."

Kate pushed him lightly with her hand and moved in the opposite direction trying to use his own drunkenness to her advantage. But he kept a firm grip on her. She struggled harder this time but the man no longer appeared drunk, or any lighter than before. Getting a small chance she dashed down the road quickly.

She soon felt his hand on her head. He ripped her back by the hair. She let of a bloodcurdling scream but that didn't stop him. He jumped on top of her and grinned maliciously. She smacked her hands against his chest, "Oh, now that's nice girlie." He cooed to her then threw his head back and let of a howling laugh.

Kate brought her knee up between his legs and he curled over onto her side and tried to get up. As she ran her ankle became caught in his hand and she fell flat on her face. Reaching back she grabbed her pistol from the back of her pants and raised it to his face. He immediately knew what it was and stopped doing anything. He slowly backed away and then darted into one of the many back alleys. "He sure knows how to woo a lady." A deep voice echoed around her.

Kate spun, her gun cocked and ready. The silver hair boy leant against one of the dirty walls on the side of the street. His eyes rose to meet hers, then they scoured her body before returning. "Nothing hotter than a girl with a gun." He murmured under his breath loud enough for her to hear. He pushed off the wall and stood straight. She looked up at his tall stature.

"It's for protection." She explained waving it away from him. "Can never be too careful around here."

"Oh it's not so bad here. I try to stop most baddies from scheming but I'm a busy guy. You understand?"

Kate laughed, "Yeah, sure. So that deal back in the bar, what was that all about?"

The boy looked up into the sky, "I take care of a problem, I get paid, I go home."

"Sounds illegal?" Kate pressed.

"Sometimes. Usually the law has nothing to say about it. I mean the NYPD doesn't really deal with demons a lot." The boy grinned devilishly.

"I'd like to speak with you about these deals." Kate said.

The boy laughed, "Most girls want to know. But a gentleman doesn't kill and tell."

Kate raised her gun to his level and aimed at his head and flashed her badge, "It wasn't a request."

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This is a new story of mine, I've written some of it already. More than just this anyway. If you guys like it I'll continue posting more of it.

Thanks for reading everybody.


	2. Chapter 2

I don't own Devil May Cry.

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"That's not going to kill me you know." The boy grinned and walked forward, putting himself at point blank range.

Kate flipped her hair out of her eyes, "Because you're a vampire? Yeah right."

The boy snickered, "No. But he is." The boy pointed behind her at a young man leaving the bar with two young woman around his arms, both appeared to be prostitutes. Kate looked behind her for a second and then back. The boy was gone. Kate darted about, looking for him in all directions. Finally she looked up and saw a moving shadow creep after the three patrons on the rooftops.

"Now how did he…?" Kate wondered aloud. Then she shook herself before she glazed over and began following them. Kate ran to catch up but soon sauntered slowly behind the man, who was to involve with his catches to notice her. Kate no longer saw the shadow of the kid in the rooftops, either he gave up the chase or fell. Kate hoped he was still around somewhere. She had no idea what she was getting into and apparently he did.

Kate was so caught up in thinking about the boy she ran into a garbage can, causing the rusted steel bucket to hit the pavement with a high pitched and revealingly loud clang. The man turned his head slightly and saw Kate. Turning full round he faced her. His two consorts stumbled in their high heels beside him, drunk beyond belief.

"Who're you?" He asked, and then he buried his head in one of his girl's hair, near her ear.

Kate immediately went for her badge, "NYPD." She announced, "Mind telling me where you're going?"

"Back to our place," One of the girls slurred.

"And you're just…helping them?" Kate asked suspiciously.

"What can I say, I'm a nice guy." The man shrugged, "Names Craig. Craig Wenner, in case you wanted to know."

"Thanks." Kate said. She immediately wished she had a police car with her. Then she could check the name, but she didn't. Kate immediately ducked as a gunshot rang out. The two girls scattered to the sides of the rode. Kate watched Craig fall face forward, a bullet wound in his skull. His eyes rolled back into his head and he crumbled to the pavement, revealing the silver haired boy from before. This time he held the largest handgun Kate had ever seen in his right hand. It was as white as his hair. Kate wondered how his wrist could have survived firing such a weapon with just one hand.

His muscles didn't even tense as he held it, trained on the body.

Kate took a step back as he took a step forward. Soon she was against the side of the streets and he loomed over the body. His icy blue eyes didn't blink as he watched the body. Using his foot he pushed Craig onto his back. "Is he dead?" One of the girls asked, suddenly sober.

Kate didn't answer but the boy did, "You should get out of here quick." He said, "Go back to the bar and tell Enzo what happened, he'll get you home safe."

"Enzo?" She said, rubbing her eyes. She rose to her feet slowly and grabbed her friend and helped her up.

"Short, fat and Italian." The boy said, "You can't miss him."

The two look one last sobering look at Craig and took off at a relentless pace. Once they were out of the crossfire Kate regained her composure. Holding her own pistol said walked around until he faced the boy head on. "You're under arrest for murder." She said. "You have the right…"

"He's not dead." The kid interjected.

"Vampire right…" Kate trailed off. Then Craig groaned and opened his eyes. Kate stepped back and lowered her pistol, deciding she should just watch.

"Morning." The boy said cheerily. "Remember me? Tony, remember." Craig nodded and Tony continued, "Good. I thought I told you to stay away. Now look what you've wrought. Where's the rest?"

Kate blinked, "The rest?"

Tony kept his eyes locked on Craig, "Vampires never travel alone. They're too vulnerable so they keep in packs, usually four or five, but I've heard of a group in Baltimore that has more than ten. Now, Craig, you're pack? Where?"

Craig spat up blood, whether it came from his bowels or was blown from his lips was anyone's guess. And Kate really didn't want to guess. Tony dodged the blood with a vengeance, appearing to almost snap his neck trying to get out of the way, "Oh no vamp, I'd rather not get your blood in me."

Craig smiled, "I'll die before I betray them."

"Oh so there are more. Good to know. And hey you're already dead, I'll just be making you dead-er." Tony smirked, the same silly smirk he had given Kate when she threatened to shoot him. Tony sniffed Craig's clothes and smiled broadly. He leant in and whispered in Craig's ear, "I don't need you anymore. I've got their scent."

Craig's eyes widened in fear, "Your one of u…" Craig trailed off as he looked down and saw a wooden stake sticking out of his chest. Then he combusted in flames and turned to ash. Tony stood and brushed Craig off of his clothing.

"No, I'm a whole lot more." Tony muttered to the deceased vampire. He turned to Kate and seemed as though he was just realizing she was still there. "Now he's dead."

"Who the hell are you?" Kate cried.

Tony laughed, "Who? Who is but the form following the what and what I am is a man in a mask."

"You're not wearing a mask," Kate pointed out.

"Oh, right." Tony muttered and laughed again, "Man, I love that movie." He said smiling. Tony walked towards her and Kate pulled her gun out. He didn't stop until he was a foot from her. Then he bowed, "Name's Tony, Tony Redgrave."

"You're the mercenary?" Kate asked, "The one everyone talks about?"

"Yeah." Tony said. He held out his hand, "And you are?"

"Kate Morrison." She replied. She took his hand and used her other to clasp her handcuffs over his wrist, "Now, you're under arrest for murder…" She looked at where Craig used to be, "I think. You're definitely under arrest for identity theft. Official reports so Tony fell from a tower almost two years ago." She concluded.

Tony fidgeted in the cuffs for a second then relaxed. "Already at the cuff stage. Babe, we just met."

Kate scoffed at his remark and tugged him along by the elbow. Tony didn't budge, "You know this is resisting arrest." She said. Tony just shrugged. Kate pulled again and he wouldn't move. He didn't even tense as she pulled. He was like some unmovable rock.

"I'm done playing." Tony whispered menacingly. "I am not going with you."

Kate stepped away from Tony as he stretched his neck. "I will shoot." Kate said as she clicked her safety off once more. She cocked the slide but Tony appeared unfazed by the idea of a bullet in his brain. His arms tensed and Kate gasped as his hands waved at her by his shoulders, the broken remains of her handcuffs still around his wrists, "That's not possible."

"You just saw me dust a vampire. Are you kidding me woman?" He pleaded with her, "When are you going to realize that none of this is normal? I mean, c'mon you are so out of your league it's not even funny. You're just a cop."

"So just because I'm a cop I not in your…league. Excuse me for being average." Kate retorted. In a blaze of anger she pulled the trigger.

Then a lot of things happened at once. Tony's head snapped back, Kate gasped and dropped her gun. As it hit the floor it went off again and hit Tony in the stomach. He lurched forward a bit but not nearly as much as with the first shot.

"Oh my god." Kate exclaimed.

Tony leant against the street wall and smiled, "Ok now I know I have rotten luck with women."

"How are you not dead?" Kate asked in bewilderment. Her shaking hands picked up her pistol from the ground. It wasn't everyday that some one survived a bullet wound to the head and she had just seen two people do it several minutes apart.

Tony looked up, his forehead devoid of any damages. "I'm too pretty to die." He chuckled.

Kate blinked and he was gone.

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	3. Chapter 3

I don't own devil May Cry.

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Kate suddenly hated her job. It was almost midnight and her report wasn't even done yet. This was because she had to draw a fine line between the truth and pure fabrication. To put the whole truth into the report would only get her a one-way ticket to the shrink. And she really, really did not want that.

Nevertheless she had to say something. Craig Wenner as it turned out, died in an apartment fire over seven years ago. And Tony, she had no idea what to do about him, if he was actually the legendary mercenary. But she had the whole night, as light snow passed by her window, to make something up. The she had to report to the media about the gunshot, and then find those two girls who had been with Craig.

The recurring vacuuming droned these problems out though, and the janitor did not bother her. He was new, and apparently ever so happy to have a job. Or at least he said he was new, Kate thought he was familiar, but she was rarely at the station after hours. He was a tall lanky man, with jet-black hair and two of the darkest hazel eyes she had ever seen. She shook his image from her mind and burrowed herself back into the papers on her desk.

Her small office reverberated as her personal phone rang. It was unnaturally loud, or it had previously been unnaturally quiet, Kate wondered which, "Hello?" She answered hesitantly.

"Ms. Morrison?" the secretary blared into her ear with surprising chipper.

"Yeah." Kate nodded, then felt foolish.

"You're all that's left." The secretary said, "Tom's just about to leave, and the janitor is here too."

"Alright. Thanks for telling me."

"Oh sorry. I've got to go, some men just walked in." Suddenly there was a piercing cry.

Kate dropped the phone and ran over to the coat rack in the corner of her office. Throwing it on quickly she check the holster inside her coat. Making sure her pistol was loaded Kate stepped out of her office slowly, trying to make as little noise as possible. Kate darted between stalls, watching the far door into the atrium. There was a gunshot, and a loud groan. Kate quickened her pace. Peering through one of two windows that marked the majority of the doorway Kate surveyed the scene. Five men, one on the ground clutching his stomach and another pummeling Tom, a burly police officer in his own right, on the far side of the room. The secretary was behind her desk whimpering slowly. The janitor was nowhere to be seen.

Tom was thrown onto the desk with surprising force, "Where is the detective?" The man snarled.

"Oh god." Kate whispered.

"No, it's just me." The janitor stalked beside her. "Hey, hey, hey, watch it girl."

Kate calmed down for a moment and the janitor covered his most important area, "It's you."

"Yeah, yeah." The drunken man from the night before said, "Trust me there was a reason I did that.'

"Oh really?" Kate murmured, "To get your rocks off?"

"No," He said sternly, "To keep you safe from Craig. Didn't work out to well though."

"How do you know about…?" Kate began.

"So here's what's going to happen. I'm going to run in, tackle that one there." He pointed to the closest man, "you're going to grab the secretary and move that sexy little ass of yours out the door."

"That's got to be the worst plan ever."

"Too bad." The man smiled and dove through the door. Rushing forward he grabbed the closest man wrenching him backwards. Before Kate knew what she was doing she grabbed the secretary and was running for the door, in only passing glance seeing Tom's lifeless body with two bite marks in his neck.

The janitor fought with such ferocity that he seemed like an animal. The men circled him, but before they could do anything he was moving towards the door with almost superhuman speed.

One of the men snatched the secretary from Kate's arms and threw her to the ground. For some reason Kate didn't stop and she was out the door just after the janitor.

Kate looked back and forth. Then began jogging again. The janitor was barely visible in an adjacent alley. Looking back Kate only saw shadows inside the building.

"What the hell is going on?" Kate asked as she reached the janitor. He didn't answer but motioned for her to follow. Once they were a little farther down the road he stopped and looked back.

"They've stopped." He whispered, "Be very quiet they've got good ears."

Kate immediately heard her next step, then the next, each louder and louder as her heart raced. Finally she put her hands on her hips and just stood there. "Alright enough, just what is going on? And who are you? "

"I'm sure as hell not your janitor. Names Wallace." He said, "Now are we going to get you safe or not."

"We?"

"Me and pointy stick here." He snickered like a twelve year old, "Seriously lady, I was asked to see you safe in case Craig Wenner's pack showed up for a bitsy bit of vengeance." He grabbed her hand and lead for a few meters before she ripped her hand from his. "Didn't think there were so many."

"By who?" She asked.

"My brother did." He replied, "Thought you cops could spot us Redgraves a mile away."

"You're a Redgrave?" She gasped, "Tony."

"Seems you got a brain in that pretty little head of yours." His eyes flickered for an instant and Kate swore she saw his pupils go blood red, "They've got the scent, and we've got to get to Tony." He grabbed her arm and pulled but she refused to budge. Scowling Wallace grabbed her wrist and hoisted her over his shoulders, "No time to be stubborn milady."

Kate kicked at his lower abdomen, her legs not quite reaching what she was aiming for. Wallace ignored her and looked back. "Look, they'll catch us if I carry you. You're just doing to have to trust me." He stopped and set her down.

Kate immediately darted past him, running wherever her legs took her. Her frantic pace slowed as she heard Wallace chase her. Whether she was getting slower was up for debate but Wallace kept with her with ease. "You're not going to outrun me!" He called.

Instinctively Kate changed directions and began running down a new street. Kate looked about her at the familiar surroundings and spotted the dive she had visited earlier. Stopping she looked down the street further, where the red neon shop lay.

Wallace bounded past her and grabbed her wrist, wrenching her along. The vampires were so close they were visible coming out from the alley. The four of them looked around for their prey and spotted them almost instantly. As one they looked past their prey at the red neon building at the end of the street and knew that they were in a bad part of town for their kind.

Wallace barely noticed as he pushed open the front doors of the shop and fell through onto his face. He crawled inside and was followed by the more graceful Kate, who was out of breath. Rolling onto his back Wallace held his nose, "I think I'm going to need an ice pack."

"You lookin' for something?" Enzo announced. He was on the couch to the doors left. Kate ignored him and looked straight ahead where Tony was enjoying a piece of pizza. An empty box beside him Tony smirked as he saw the anger in her face.

"I got her Tony." Wallace said as he staggered to his feet. "But they're following."

"No they aren't." Tony said all-knowingly, "They stopped after they saw the sign. Go check around though. I'll have an ice pack and something to drink ready for you went you get back."

"Alright brother." Wallace said. Kate looked at him strangely and then at Tony. They couldn't possibly be related. Jet-black hair and hazel eyes. Silver white hair and piercing blue eyes, it was impossible. Before she could ask Wallace was walking out the door.

"Don't stray." Tony called as the door closed, "Now who'd have thought we'd be seeing each other again so soon."

"Yo Tony." Enzo interjected quickly, "I got to be at the bar soon, meet clientele and the like. Business you know?"

Tony laughed, "When are you going to realize I am your business?"

"When I lose my other contacts," Enzo retorted. He walked out the door, not acknowledging Kate on his way out.

"Alone at last," Tony smiled.

"You sent some one to watch me." Kate said, "I don't particularly like that."

"Had to be done," Tony said, "You're safety and all that. Pizza?"

Kate shook her head; "I should arrest you right now."

"Go ahead," Tony held his hands out mockingly, "Give it a try. Oh but first I've got to get some blood together."

"Blood?" Kate asked.

"For Wallace." Tony replied absently, "He's probably famished out there."

"I thought you hated vampires." Kate said. She ignored the fact that all that was crazy and vampires couldn't really exist. But then again she was talking to a dead man.

"He's not a vampire. He's…well have you ever heard of the comic Blade?" Tony asked.

"Wasn't that a movie?' Kate replied.

"Well yeah I guess it was too. Anyway he's like Blade."

Kate looked behind her, thinking Wallace was going to barge in at any moment, "So…"

"Yeah," Tony answered without her asking, "His mother was on a mission. Ended up with some dusty clothes. And nine months later she got him as well. He doesn't like to talk about it with anyone other than a Redgrave, since only we understand. So don't ask him about it, in fact I never told you."

"What do you mean only you Redgraves understand?" Kate asked.

Tony smirked, "Redraves are infamous for being the best. It's because not many of us are human."

"Are you serious?"

"Absolutely babe." Tony rose from his chair and walked over to the drum set in the corner and rapped on the snare for a few seconds, "Most of the older Redgraves are human. Come to think of it," He put his gloved hand on his chin and looked up, "It's a recent thing."

"And you're the most infamous of all." Kate said absently, "So what's that make you?"

"You don't want to know." Tony said softly, "You're taking this all surprisingly well."

"Do I have a choice?" Kate leered, "It's not like I can run away. Those things will catch me eventually. You know more than I do what's going on here, so I'd say it's best if I stayed."

"Yeah, like a bad dream isn't it?" Tony murmured, "Take a seat if you want."

Kate, against her better judgment, fell back into one of Tony's surprisingly comfortable chairs. "So what does this all mean?"

"Well." Tony began, "They're after you, but that's self evident. Vampires have got a lot of pride, kill one and his pack will be down on you like vultures."

"But I didn't kill him, you did."

"I know." Tony said, "But you were there. They've got it in their heads that you did it because they couldn't think of trying to take me. So they're going after the next best thing."

"Is that a sword?" Kate asked suddenly, pointing to a very large, and very sharp looking sword that hung downwards, suspending in the air by two very large, metal posts. The goat's eyes on the hilt appeared to stare at her.

"Oh that." Tony murmured, "That…was a memento from my father."

"You're father." Kate said slowly. For all she had heard of Tony. There was nothing on his family. It suddenly occurred to her that he, like everyone else, must have had parents, a childhood, birthdays, hell even hobbies. He wasn't just a name, he was a person. "Is he…"

"Died when I was a kid." Tony looked sullen for a moment, "This is about you though. Not me. You're going to have to stay here for a couple days. Or at least until I get these vampires out of the way. To be honest, once you fall into this underworld of ours, it's very hard to climb back out."

The front door crashed open and Kate saw the beginnings of a blizzard storming outside, "They're nowhere to be found." Wallace announced.

"Good to hear." Tony smiled and clasped his brother's hand, "Thanks for the help. Ice is on the table."

Wallace smiled and shook the snow from his shoulder much the way Tony had in the bar only yesterday. Grabbing the bag of ice Wallace noticed the blood packet beside it. He looked heatedly at Tony for a moment, and then grabbed it as well.

Wallace eyed Kate, and then he looked downcast. He slowly turned his back to her and walked outside, closing the door behind him. "He seems upset." Kate pointed out.

Tony sighed, "Yeah. He'll get over it eventually."

"Will he be alright with me knowing? About his, um, whatever it is?" Kate asked hesitantly.

"Yeah. He's just mad that I told you." Tony replied, "He's the only one whose supposed to tell other people. Wants us to keep our mouths shut about it."

Neither of them spoke for what seemed like an eternity. The phone ringing cut into the silence like a sharp object and Tony stared at the telephone with a vengeance. Picking up the receiver he said, "Devil Never Cry. This had better be important." Kate thought he sounded a lot like a businessman. But hunting supernatural…things. That couldn't be a business. "Cut the shit Enzo." Tony's voice cracked a little and Kate's thoughts were disrupted. "What do you mean there are camera crews all over? Would you slow down a minute? Enzo, I don't speak Italian. No, I c'mon man, yeah she's still…Hell no are you an idiot they're still out there. Channel five? Ok bye. No goodbye." Tony hung up the phone. "God Enzo."

"What was that all about?"

"I don't know." Tony answered and quickly walked over to the far corner of his office, where a small living space was unceremoniously placed. A relatively large TV stood on top of an unnaturally small desk. But Tony ignored the television and began rummaging through the opposing couch. With a small "Aha." Tony beamed as he put a clicker in front his face.

Loud noise blared from the speakers for a moment, and a longhaired, pale man screamed on the screen. Soon the television went dark as Tony turned on the news.

"We're here outside the Love Planet, where early this morning two women believed to be prostitutes were found dead behind the establishment. The owner, Enzo Ferino of the Ferino Family has heatedly denied our requests at an interview until police have completed their initial investigation."

"Hey, aren't those two?" Kate asked as the camera panned to one of the girl's faces.

Tony nodded, "They were with Craig last night."

"And now they're dead."

Tony looked at the ground fiercely, "This is bad. They're going after everyone that was there last night."

"So they'll be back for us?" Kate asked, "Looks like I'm not going home for a while."

Tony looked at the wall for a moment, and then the sword was strapped to his back. He moved towards his main desk and reached into one of the drawers. Kate saw a sliver of the silver pistol he had used the night before along with a matching black pistol.

"Where are you going?" Kate asked angrily, "Are you just going to leave me here? After you had me forcibly removed from my job and thrown into this shit?"

"And I'm going to drag you out of this." Tony said. He tossed his head and danced like a boxer, "I've got demons to kill."

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	4. Chapter 4

I don't own Devil May Cry

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Tony had been gone for almost an hour when Kate finally decided to do something other than stare at the recurring news footage and listen to the droning voice of an uninspired reporter.

As such she was currently in Tony's kitchen, if it could be called that. It had all the bare necessities of a kitchen; a fridge, an oven, a microwave, etc. But it looked as though whoever designed the room was either incompetent or drunk. Not only that but it looked as though Tony never cleaned. Wallace hadn't come inside, but his dark silhouette was still visible through one of the front doors two windows. Kate was beginning to wonder if he was her guard or her jailer. There were only four lights in the entire place, which was all right considering how open it really was; however her forehead was quickly becoming agitated by the constant strain on her eyes.

There wasn't much in the way of furniture. A single, heavy wooden desk occupied the space directly in front of the door, though it was on the other side of the large, open accommodations. There was a medley of musical instruments stashed in the corner near an antique jukebox. In the adjacent corner from that was a rather large pool table, with a rack of cues behind it. Very Spartan like quarters.

There was a door behind the main desk. It was Kate's final frontier of exploration and she becoming bored enough to set aside foolish fears. It's not like he'd have a chained-up, evil twin brother, with piercing blue eyes and slicked back hair (the only purpose of which would be to differentiate him from Tony.) Kate shook her head and made her way to the door. Standing before it made it all the more ominous and she was seriously considering some of her fears. Without realizing it Kate felt the cool brass of the doorknob in her palm. Not really sure if she was moving or not the doorknob turned and the door flung open. It was a bathroom.

"They always want to know what's behind there." Kate heard behind her. Turning she saw Wallace standing in the entranceway, a blizzard raging behind him. "It's a part of your nature I suppose."

"My nature?" Kate raised an eyebrow, and then shivered.

"It's not that bad." Wallace shrugged off the cold, but he closed the door anyway. "You're all so curious."

"Curiosity? It's what makes us human." Kate replied.

Wallace stood stock still for a moment and murmured, "I wouldn't know much about that."

"No I guess you wouldn't" Kate tried fervently not to look into his eyes.

Kate looked downcast and the conversation died. Wallace sighed. His spine stayed rigid even as he moved slowly towards the side of the room where the pool table was, appearing to have no other purpose but to not be where he was before.

"Redgraves." Kate said.

"I'm not giving you any useful information." Wallace said immediately, "No names, nothing. You're still a detective."

"I was actually kind of looking for an overall history." Kate mumbled under her breath.

"We live to fight. We strive to win. Victory is everything, no matter what you become. We shall always prevail."

"What?" Kate raised an eyebrow and her head ached suddenly.

"It's our motto." Wallace said offhandedly, "The Redgraves only exist to fight. They recruit the best. It just happens to be that yes, not many of us a fully human anymore. We're the monsters, monsters cower before. That's all before Tony came along though."

"What is Tony anyway?" Kate asked slowly, very slowly.

"I honestly don't know. He never talks about it. All I know is that he makes most demons look like chumps, so whatever he is, he's definitely something big." Wallace answered, "I know one thing about the guy though. Something I'd wager you should know. That whole arrogance thing of his; it's an act. He's troubled, bit disturbed even."

"Emotionally?" Kate pressed, "What caused it?"

But Wallace didn't give, "His business to tell you. Odd, he should be back by now."

"He's only been gone an hour and a half." Kate said, "About Tony…"

"He should have been back by now." Wallace reasserted himself.

"Maybe he can't find them." Kate guessed.

"He has their scent. They should be dead. He can handle it." Wallace shook his head, "I'm just overreacting. Brothers you know."

"You're not blood relatives." Kate said. Wallace snorted, "But I guess I know what you mean. My brother moved to Europe about two years ago."

"Europe is a nice place."

"You've been there?"

"I was born in Hungary."

"I see." Kate sat down in Tony's leather chair behind his desk, "So we must know each other pretty well by now."

"Any other siblings?" Wallace smirked; a fang passing by his bottom lip reminded Kate of what he was.

"I did. She died when we were teenagers. A hemorrhage in her brain. She had…hallucinations for days before she died."

"Really?" Wallace raised an eyebrow and swayed back on his heels, "Of what?"

"A man with a monocle spoke to her. Nonsense really." Kate wiped her cheek with the back of her hand, "I. Are you okay?"

Wallace was staring straight at the ground, as though he wanted to dig a hole and bury himself beneath the wooden floorboards. Kate ducked down trying to get his eye, but to no avail. She could hear him mumble something under his breath. It sounded almost like a prayer.

Wallace stalked closer to the pool table and hefted a cue in his right hand. The table was already set and he broke the triangle of balls apart with startling skill. With no real aim he began hitting balls at random into different pockets. Kate was happy to have her thoughts back for a time.

Tony certainly seemed a mystery. The best mercenary there was, and apparently not even human to boot. Kate was, despite her abilities, was in the deep end of the pool. There was a crack as Wallace struck number four. What was she going to do? She thought of her brother, Paul, the moral compass that always pointed north. But he was in Turkey, building houses for the needy and out of reach. Kate suddenly felt very alone.

Crack. Wallace straightened and reached for a blue chalk cube. The crunching of powder blue was eerily resonant. Even Wallace seemed to notice the loudness of an otherwise trivial sound. 'You want to play girl?" Wallace asked sheepishly and shrugged his shoulders.

"No." Kate replied abruptly. Wallace shrugged again and then ran his hand through his hair. He returned to his game. Kate slumped into the chair and suddenly her eyes were closed. It had been a long night.

Kate didn't know where she was, but she sure as hell wasn't in Tony's office anymore. In fact it didn't look like she was anywhere. Just…an absence of light, not really dark, but Kate's mind ached at trying to comprehend her surrounding. Rubbing her temples to soothe her impending migraine she swayed. She stood stiff as a board as she realized she had not moved, but reality itself had hiccupped. Kate quite nearly vomited at the small tremor and she was now fighting bile back down her throat. Colors swirled in front of her.

"Did I take acid or something?" Kate asked herself.

"No. You're still dreaming though." She answered.

"Oh that's a comfort." Kate muttered, "Hey wait." Kate spun around and faced herself.

"Don't get all 'You can't exist' because I don't. It's not like we're anywhere to start with." 

"Am I going to get some semblance of my life back?" Kate asked.

Kate, the other non-existing Kate, scrunched her forehead, "What do I look like to you? A prophet?"

"Usually in sequences like this I'd be privy to some answers."

"Not how it works," Other Kate answered, "I'm you, I don't know any more or less than you do. Except I'm not so wound-up, and I don't look haggard."

"It's been a long night. So what are we doing here anyway?"

"How should I know, I just came into existence after all."

"You're useless!" Kate shouted. She began to storm off but she only ended up facing her other self again. Her mind didn't even try to understand how that had happened.

"So… Wallace is a cutie." Other Kate said absently.

"Oh my god he's a vampire." Kate pleaded with herself, "You've. I've got to be kidding."

"Tony said he was like Blade."

"I can't believe I'm arguing with myself." Kate rubbed her forehead. Her life was getting so crazy so fast. She closed her eyes and continued to rub her head. He began to hear a voice; first it was the other version of her. Then it became deeper and the hand on her forehead was dry and coarse. She opened her eyes to see Wallace hovering over her. Concern on his face.

"Are you alright girlie?" He asked.

"I'm…fine." Kate shook her head and Wallace removed his hand, standing straight in front of her.

"You're running a fever." Wallace corrected simply. He ducked low and looked her straight in one eye, then moved to the other eye. "You always mumble in your sleep like that?"

"No…what did I say?"

"Arguing with yourself. Existence. Only snippets were coming out." Wallace looked to the door for a good long while and mumbled something under his breath. "Odd." He said very clearly.

"What is it?" Kate asked. Before she got an answer the door swung open. Kate shivered at the sudden drop in temperature. Fully expecting to see Tony at the door she had to do a double take to realize it was that Ferino fellow instead. Flanked by a large man.

Enzo shut the door quickly, apparently not accustomed to the outside weather either, "Coldest winter ever." He remarked, "Global warming my ass. Girl still here Wallace?"

"She is." Wallace said coolly, not taking his eyes off Enzo's bodyguard, "Caleb, aren't you supposed to be in California?"

"Things got heavier than I generally like it." Caleb, the large man spoke harshly, "I came back to see Master Tony and get somebody to come back with me."

"Have you talked to Master Tony?" Wallace asked, his eyes betraying nothing, "Anything about me?"

Caleb shrugged, "The Master never liked what your father did to his daughter. But he doesn't blame you for it so stop asking. Whose the girl?"

"This," Wallace outstretched his hand and bowed his head, "Is Ms. Kate Morrison. She's here under Tony's protection after a vampire attack last night."

Kate, feeling very out of the loop, decided it was best to stand. Despite her legs, and furthermore the rest of her body's, protests she stood and decided she needed one question most dearly answered, "Who is Master Tony?"

Wallace blushed, or at least Kate thought he blushed, "Oh right." He exclaimed, "Master Tony Redgrave is my grandfather, not the Tony Redgrave you met. This one is older; the patriarch of the Redgrave family so to speak."

Kate looked at the ground and felt very foolish. "Oh." Was all she muttered.

Caleb leaned against the doorway, "Since when did you go all floppy-mouthed Wallace?"

Wallace smiled weakly, "About the same time you started running away from jobs."

Caleb sighed, "If the kid isn't here then I'll have to go straight to Master Tony. He won't be pleased that I left."

"I've never seen the old bugger pleased about anything." Enzo chirped in, "He's not back yet?"

"No." Wallace said simply.

"I'd be worried if it was anyone other than Tony." Enzo put his finger to his chin, "Well Wallace, Tony still has money left over from the last job and all the small tabs have been paid off. He's not very good with the cash anyhow. Do you guys need anything?"

"Sleep." Kate said as she rubbed her forehead and closed her eyes.

"I hear what you're saying." Enzo remarked, "But I've no idea where Tony keeps the blankets."

Caleb looked to the ceiling and blinked. He withdrew his large overcoat from his shoulders and draped it across his arm. He watched Kate as he took a few steps forward, his brown eyes did not deter and he crossed the room and handed the coat to her. Kate hefted the coat over her own shoulders and wasn't surprised to see the bottom of the massive outfit lying loosely upon the floor.

"Are you sure?" Kate asked sheepishly.

Caleb smiled and suddenly the giant, master of intimidation became no more than a relatively friendly looking bear. He nodded his head and took a few steps back, "I've got lot's of them. No short supply when you're a Redgrave. Oh." Caleb darted forward for a moment and Kate dashed back, unsure of his intentions. Caleb snatched the coat and reached into one of the pockets, withdrawing a sawed-off shotgun. "There. Now it should be fine."

Caleb craned his neck and slowly touched his ear to his shoulder, then did the same movements to his opposing shoulder. "I'll be around for a little while if you need me. Just call the number and ask for The Saint." It was only as he said that that Kate noticed the large cross necklace draped over his neck and she shook her head. Caleb let out an exaggerated sigh and turned to brave the cold.

"Any business Enzo?" Wallace asked, his eyes narrowing as the door closed behind Caleb

"Cut short by the marauding mob that we call the media." Enzo looked at the door as well and sighed, "Good thing Caleb was there. I did, however, have enough time to learn of a fine little job that needs doing."

Wallace cocked his head and his ears perked like a dog, "Let's hear it Enzo."

"It isn't much. You know that damn drug house about two blocks away?" Enzo waited for a moment until Wallace nodded, "An addict locked himself in and started spouting shit from the upper windows. He hasn't hurt anybody yet, but blood sacrifices must be made apparently, and he's getting bolder. Almost took a girl passing by yesterday."

"Sounds damn easy." Wallace muttered. "Oh. This is perfect." Wallace spun on his heels and faced Kate, who was near asleep on Tony's coach with Caleb's coat atop her like a blanket. "Never mind." Wallace said.

Enzo ducked to the side and looked past Wallace and saw Kate, her eyes now closed and her breathing even, and said, "Oh no. There's no way they'll allow it."

"I'm sure we'll figure it out." Wallace smiled an clapped his hand to Enzo's shoulder, "I think the girl needs to be fully immersed in our little world, now that she's here after all."

Enzo groaned.

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	5. Chapter 5

I don't own Devil May Cry

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Kate awoke and she was very alone. Tony Redgrave's office appeared to be incapable of containing any heat and Caleb's huge coat was of little help. She shivered and rose into a sitting position. She felt her hair in knots where she had slept and groggily she got to her feet. Huddling the coat around her she drudged her way towards Tony's bathroom, where she was certain she had seen a shower the other night. Hot shower sounded just right to her, and Wallace wasn't around to bother her now.

A few minutes later she emerged from the dingy bathroom with a blast of steam. She was still straightening her hair when she noticed the pile of papers beside the door. She warily checked her surroundings, as though she was being watched. Fighting down a sickening feeling in her stomach Kate hurried over to the pile and anxiously snatched the letter at the top of the pile. On the front was an address, certainly not the office but there was no returning name. Kate saw it labeled with a large, cursive F and immediately thought of the fat, little Italian man. On the back was a sticker holding the envelope closed. Kate hurriedly ripped the sticker away and unraveled the letter within.

"Tony Redgrave the junior." Kate read aloud, "It has come to my attention. My? My who." Kate skipped through the long letter to the end where the name Giovanna was written beneath Yours Sincerely. Without another word Kate plundered the entire pile of letters, papers, and what looked like bills into the pockets of Caleb's coat. Hiding inside the warmth of her new attire Kate decided to brave the outside.

It wasn't as cold as Kate thought it would be. But as soon as she opened the door she saw at least half a foot of snow crunching under her feet. The sun shone brightly and there was not a cloud in sight. Kate averted her eyes from the reflective, white snow and mustered up her courage. She began walking towards work.

There were people on the street to be sure, but Kate felt as though they didn't exist. That they were there only to walk past her; she looked at one passing man, but he did not acknowledge her. In fact he seemed more distant than the others. A couple sat outside a small café on the other side of the Redgrave shop and watched her warily as she stumbled through the snow. Suddenly she saw the situation from another perspective and she saw a blonde, fairly attractive woman leaving that most likely infamous shop in a coat that was quite obviously not hers.

Kate wanted to say something to the couple, to yell to everyone one that she was not what they thought. She thought better; it's not like she could change their minds and would only draw more attention to herself. Attention she did not want. With a flick of her hair Kate quickened her pace and soon she was away from those judgmental eyes. Rounding another corner the precinct came into view. Police officers came in and out as they pleased, ignoring the broken glass, the blood, the body of the secretary lying in the snow.

Kate blinked and all that was gone. The doors were closed and intact. There was no blood in the snow and no body on the ground. Breathing deeply Kate did not move for what seemed to be a long time. Finally she made her way into the precinct. There was a police officer just inside who grabbed her by the wrist and pulled her out of the foyer quickly.

Unable to resist the officer Kate followed him drudgingly. In fact he seemed quite content to parade her through the mess of desks and people to where she thought the Commissioners office was. Kate felt more than a little numb, and the whole situation seemed more surreal than her previous night. And those had been more than she could handle. Before she realized it someone was speaking to her.

"…Have any information?" The Commissioner asked. Kate wasn't exactly sure how he sounded, somewhere between very agitated and near mental-breakdown.

Kate shook her head and tried to process what he had said prior to asking her a question but she really couldn't, "I know where Tony Redgrave is." She blurted.

Everyone stopped talking, and it was now that Kate noticed that at least six men were crowding inside the small office. Well it wasn't so much as a small office so much as the Commissioner had a large desk, and he appeared to be using all of it at the moment. 'Huh?" Someone said.

"Uh, here." Kate swiftly said. She pulled out all the letters, all the papers and everything else she had in her pockets and flung that onto the Commissioners desk. No one touched them.

"Tony Redgrave is dead." The Commissioner reasoned slowly, "We were discussing last night detective. You were here so we can finally get some real testimony to our assumptions."

"What were your assumptions?" Kate asked before quickly adding, "Sir."

"We assumed that the young man you shot last night." The Commissioner raised his hand as Kate began to protest, "Yes, yes. Self-defense, you had to. We all get it. We assumed the man was a member of a gang, and this gang decided they needed their revenge. Are we in agreement detective?"

Kate ran her hand through her hair. She looked at the Commissioner, then at some of the other officers, "Well sort of." She said meekly, "I…"

"So you can explain these?" The commissioner interjected, throwing some pictures in front of her. They were from a coroner's report and the secretary looked very much at peace, despite the large marks on the side of her neck.

"Yes, sir." Kate mumbled, "I think…I think they're vampires, sir."

The Commissioner laughed, as did two other men, the rest just looked at her with raised eyebrows, "First Tony Redgrave, now vampires" The Commissioner tried to contain his laughter, "What's next detective, werewolves? Maybe a ghost? Is our precinct haunted detective?"

No, I mean, sir, you've got to believe me." Kate sputtered, "I can take you to his place. Tony Redgrave's shop. It's really close, it won't take long."

"Fine we'll go," the Commissioner said, still chuckling, "It's good to laugh after what happened last night, and you're one hell of a comedian detective. Get your coats boys and detective; lead the way. Jackson, fire us up a warrant to enter."

And so Kate led, still feeling extremely foolish, to the Devil Never Cry shop. Almost everyone in the entire precinct decided to come, and near twenty people followed behind her and the Commissioner. "This it?" The Commissioner asked as he pointed to the sign above the decrepit shop.

"Yeah," Kate muttered and snatched the warrant from Jackson, a veteran officer with a nice desk job because he was too old to be on the streets, and opened the door. "Anybody here?" Kate announced as she stepped inside.

Everything was how she left it. It didn't look like any of the Redgraves had returned from whatever the hell they were doing. It wasn't until then that she asked herself where Wallace had even gone. But it was too late now and police officers began rummaging through Tony's things. Kate watched as the Commissioner himself sank to his knees and begin checking underneath Tony's desk.

"Sir." An officer behind the desk announced, holding an envelope in his hands and a wide grin on his face.

"What is it?" The Commissioner asked, not getting up from the other side of the desk.

The officer quickly checked the contents of the envelope and stated, "A whole lot of money sir. At least ten thousand, all in hundreds and fifties."

The Commissioner shot up remarkable fast for someone of his age and snatched the envelope from the young officers hand. Looking inside for himself the Commissioner waved his hand and yelled for attention, "Everyone, stop. We got a heap of cash here addressed to a Tony from someone named Lady, obviously an alias. Bag this and get it back to the precinct. I want to know everything there is to know about this place and whoever this Lady is?"

The police officers continued to look at him, "Damnit, Jackson you're on it. Everyone else keep working, now would be nice." The Commissioner said.

Kate did not join in the search. Not until one officer announced that he had found a large vault hidden behind the television. As everyone crowded around two officers hefted the large television and set it aside. It looked like a normal door, but as soon as one officer tried to open it he got the shock of his life. Instead of a handle it simply had a knob that looked normal enough but for some reason it no longer budged as several officers tried to turn it together.

"Shoot it." The Commissioner ordered, "I want to know what's behind this door."

"Sir," One of the junior detectives that came along interjected, "That's not part of our warrant, and we can't do that."

"We found a heap of cash. We've got motive enough to search the entire premise and we can't open this door any other way." The Commissioner said, "And if you'd actually listened during training you'd know that.

The front door swung open. All the officers turned to see a tall, red-clad man who looked barely out of his teens. Then their eyes slowly surveyed the massive sword on the young mans back and the two enormous guns sticking out of matching holsters behind his back.

"Tony…" Kate breathed.

Tony craned his neck and waved to her, grinning like a child. "You fine officers have a warrant?" Tony asked venomously, despite his grin, or perhaps because of it, Tony Redgrave did not look happy at all.

"We do." The Commissioner said, ignoring Tony's glare, "Are you a Tony Redgrave? Do you own this establishment? Do you have a permit for those weapons?"

"I do." Tony said clearly, "I'm not Tony Redgrave, however. As for these weapons I've got on me. Nope."

"We'll be confiscating them then." The Commissioner looked very much like he did not want to do that at all, "If you aren't Tony Redgrave, would you please explain why we found a large sum of money addressed to Tony Redgrave from a person called Lady?"

"What money?" Tony asked, "I don't see any money."

"We've taken it back to the precinct as evidence." The Commissioner said slowly, "If you'll come back with us, we'll be sure to straighten this all out."

Tony smiled, and nearly ever officer took a step back. Kate watched Tony intently, but he did not acknowledge her at all. His eyes were locked with the Commissioners. Kate felt the air tense. Tony did not look happy at all. "Alright." He said finally, "No cuffs though."

"No cuffs." The Commissioner agreed, "We haven't charged you with anything."

And so Tony, The Commissioner and Kate led the way back to the precinct. Kate glanced Tony's way twice along the way, but he didn't notice, or he didn't care. Tony's guns were in the possession of two separate officers. His sword was still on his back however, it seemed as though none of the officers could carry its weight and walk at the same time. The fact that Tony walked with it easily, strapped to his back by seemingly nothing, made every officer very, very nervous. And Tony seemed to enjoy their discomfort. It was the first time Kate had ever seen Tony act callous, but she had only known him for a day.

But Tony seemed jovial, oblivious to the trouble he was very obviously in. It was like it didn't matter, like he's life didn't matter. Wallace had said he was disturbed; maybe that was what he was talking about.

Kate looked both ways before she crossed the street with the other officers. She felt like a child in this situation, not really understanding what the adults were talking about. She felt as though she was drowning.

The feeling evaporated as quickly as it had come as soon as she entered the precinct, but there was a new feeling. She couldn't describe it, but it was somewhere between scared and brave. Not that that really helped her understand.

Tony was led to one of the interrogation rooms and was placed in one of the three chairs in the small grey room and unceremoniously locked inside. Kate and the Commissioner stood behind the one-way mirror and watched Tony like two hawks. Tony stared right back at them, smiling.

"Is he the guy?" The Commissioner asked.

"Yes sir." Kate answered, "He definitely said he was Tony Redgrave."

"Well." The Commissioner looked at his watch, "Even if he isn't. He's someone we'll want to talk to. Do you want to come in?"

"No." Kate said, "I think I'll stay in here. Sir."

The Commissioner left her in the onlooker's room. With two other senior detectives with her she watched the commissioner, as well as a police officer and a psychologist entered the interrogation room. They surrounded Tony, the police officer stood stoic by the door. The Commissioner sauntered behind Tony, who did acknowledge him. The psychologist sat down on the opposing side of Tony and flipped open a very large file.

The Commissioner sunk beside Tony's ear and asked, "Could you tell us your name?"

"Ash Williams."

The Commissioner struck the table with the palm of his hand, "You're real name kid."

"I wouldn't call me kid, old man." Tony smirked and the Commissioner flushed red.

"Where is the cooperation here?" The Commissioner asked, "Randy?"

The psychologist looked up and blinked, "Oh right. Okay, here's the deal." Randy spoke. He rubbed his hands and it was evident his bark was no better than his bite, and neither were very good, "You give us your name, we run it through the computer an verify it. Or we could charge you with resisting arrest."

"That doesn't make sense." Tony said absently, "How could I resist arrest if I'm not being arrested."

Randy looked down at his files and said nothing. Tony smirked and continued, "You have nothing."

The Commissioner looked absolutely livid, "You have heaps of untraceable cash, obvious ties to the Ferino's and Redgraves and handguns big enough to be shotguns, of which you don't have any permit for."

Kate watched, mesmerized by Tony's sheer audacity. It was pure arrogance.

"Oh those guns aren't mine." Tony mumbled.

"You said they were," The Commissioner hissed, "We saw you holding them."

"You saw them in holsters on my back," Tony smiled and looked innocently at Randy, "And besides if you look at them you'll see they have 'To Tony Redgrave' on each of them."

"And you're Tony Redgrave." The Commissioner exclaimed, "You admit it?"

"I said those guns belong to Tony Redgrave, which it quite obvious if you did your job." Tony said, "Can you prove I'm Tony Redgrave?"

Kate blustered. Tony couldn't possibly have such a profound knowledge of the law like that. Not for a mercenary he couldn't. He was right. Everything they had was circumstantial if they ever wanted to make a case against him. They couldn't prove he was Tony Redgrave. They had no picture to match to him, no warrant for prints, nothing.

The Commissioner had surely figured that out just at the same time she did by the way he stormed out of the interrogation room followed shortly after by the police officer, leaving Randy alone with Tony to work some psychological magic. Hopefully.

"We can hold you for forty-eight hours without charging you." Randy said, "And he intents to hold you for as long as he can. If you cooperate you can be out of here in a few hours at most."

Tony shrugged. Then he lowered his shoulders and placed his elbows on the table. He whispered, barely audible through the speakers in Kate's room, "Can I talk to detective Kate Morrison, alone? And while not being recorded?"

Randy nodded, "That's well within your rights Mr…"

"Get her." Tony growled and Randy rushed from the room like a dog with its tail between its legs. Randy soon appeared in the doorway of the looking room.

"He wants to see you." Randy said, exhausted from his short run.

"I heard. Keep recording."

"But isn't that…" Randy tried to speak.

"It's only illegal if we try to use it in court." Kate explained. She shoved past the short man and made her way to the interrogation room. The Commissioner was outside, as was the guard.

"He wants so see you?" The Commissioner said, "So he does know you."

"Of course he knows me." Kate said, "We just have to prove it sir."

As Kate entered the interrogation room she hear the Commissioner mumbled behind her, "I hate this innocent until proven guilty thing."

"Ah Kate." Tony clapped his hands and smiled, "How are you feeling?"

"Cut it Tony." Kate snapped, "You're not helping here."

Tony looked around, appearing bewildered, "Tony? I don't see a Tony. You must be talking to me."

Kate flustered, "They aren't recording us."

"Sure they are. You told them to." Tony smiled and looked straight at the mirror, "Yeah!" Tony shouted, "I heard that!"

Kate looked at the mirror too for a moment before glaring spitefully at Tony, "Fine." Kate turned to the door and opened it, "Tell them to stop recording and leave us alone."

The Commissioner looked at her, "No can do detective. We're not leaving you alone with that guy, Tony Redgrave or not. I can't believe I'm actually starting to think this guy is the real deal. Doesn't matter if he's Tony Redgrave, he's definitely a mercenary and a good one."

"He wants us to stop recording. We either have to stop or not talk to him at all. And we need him to talk."

The Commissioner appeared to consult his brain for a moment, "Fine." He said, "But we're keeping video, no audio but we'll be watching video for your safety. I don't like the idea of leaving me people inside there with him."

Kate nodded and closed the door. She turned to see Tony, who hadn't moved from his spot at the table. Before she could speak he said, "Video is fine."

Kate looked at him for a moment, "I don't know if they're still recording."

"They've stopped," Tony said absently, "The pack is gone."

"You got rid of them?" Kate said rhetorically, "Thanks."

"Great thanks." Tony muttered, "I've got half a mind to massacre this entire precinct because of you. But that'd be a nasty mess."

Kate's skin became damp with sweat and her blood went cold, "You'd… you'd kill everyone here?" He couldn't possibly… But he had survived a bullet to the head. She got the feeling that he could and would. He was dangerous.

"I've got the general rule not to kill humans, unless they're shooting at me or a black magic asshole." Tony said, "But anyone who comes after me dies. No exceptions. I helped you because your situation was partly my fault." Tony's eyes narrowed and he no longer looked like this was all a joke, he didn't look like a kid anymore, "That situation has been dealt with. And here we are."

Wallace was right. Tony was disturbed. It was like he had no sense of right or wrong. Kate shivered at the thoughts of what he might be capable of. "I don't understand." Kate said, "I got the idea that you helped people."

Tony sighed, "There was a girl once. I met her about a few years ago, she taught me what I had to do with my life. Actually, she more guided me towards what I needed to do. I killed her father. I shot him dead because he was evil. He wanted my blood. He stole from me, he took this amulet from me." Tony's mouth snapped shut, "I'm sorry, it's just…I've dealt with people like you my whole life. I've helped people, only to have them stab me in the back once they found out what I am. My entire life has been a struggle to survive and all because of how I was born, and who my parents were."

"I haven't stabbed you in the back Tony." Kate whimpered slowly. Tony's eyes blared, their piercing blue looked right through her like she was nothing. He shook with anger and he grasped the metal table with his hands. He wretched the table from the ground it was bolted to. He hurled it against the mirror and the mirror shattered. Kate screamed and covered her head as broken glass flew over her. A piece lodged itself in Tony's leg and he pulled it out like a sliver.

Tony breathed heavily, Kate could have sworn his eyes were red, but he closed his eyes and when he opened them they were the same piercing blue, "I'm sorry." Kate pleaded, "I didn't mean to…" Wallace was right. Tony was not in his right mind. She didn't even think he had a right mind.

"Shut up." Tony whispered softly. Four police officers barged into the room and raised their handguns to Tony's head.

"Put your hands above your head." One officer said, his voice cracked under the pressure. Tony laughed at them. He laughed so hard he clutched his stomach and began to choke.

"Hold your fire!" The Commissioner shouted as he rushed into the room, "Put your firearms away."

"But sir…" One began.

The Commissioner glared at the police officers and each put the handgun back into their holsters. An old man entered behind the Commissioner, "My boy." The old man said calmly. The old man took his cane and placed it against the wall of the interrogation room by the door and limped towards Tony. Tony appeared to calm down as he looked directly at the old man. "Come with me, my son, and come home."

Tony towered over the grandfatherly figure and shook his head slowly, "I need to go to." Tony said, "I have to go ask."

"I know my boy," the old man said. He put one wrinkled and veined hand on Tony's broad shoulder, "We'll go see her together, she was, after all my sister."

"Thank you."

Tony and the old man walked out of the interrogation together. They strode through the precinct without returning the glares and looks they received. The Commissioner stopped every attempt to stop the two and they left without incident. As they exited Kate stood with the Commissioner at the doorway, "Why'd you let them leave?"

"We…I couldn't have an incident like that happen in my precinct." The Commissioner said.

"You're lying. Sir."

"I am at that detective." The Commissioner walked back inside and locked himself in his office. Kate stared as the two men entered a small limousine and drove off. Kate rushed into the parking garage and took one of the patrol cars. She sped out of the garage and slowed as she hit the snow on the sidewalk and sped up again as she got onto the cleared road. She pursued the limo, ignoring whether or not they really noticed.

Eventually the limo stopped outside a cemetery just outside of both the metropolis of New York and the suburbs. She watched as Tony exited the limousine. He was armed again, but he took his matching guns, and his sword off and returned them inside the door. He walked slowly through the untouched snow and looked down all the way. He made his way to a specific tombstone and fell to his knees before it. He grabbed it, and the one next to it. He was there for more than half an hour before the old man emerged from the limousine and followed Tony's tracks in the snow and held Tony by the shoulder. Tony looked up and gathered himself. The two went back to the limousine and drove away.

Kate exited the patrol car and made her own way through the snow towards the tombstones. She ha a difficult time getting there, and it seemed with every step the snow began harder to tread. She slipped more than once but finally she made it. She peered at the name of the first tombstone, then the one next to it. The name on the second had long since eroded and not even the dates were visible. It looked as though no dates had even been put on it.

"Eva Redgrave." Kate said aloud.

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	6. Chapter 6

0I don't own Devil May Cry.

And everyone, trust me, Dante will explain why he still uses the name Tony Redgrave, even though the story is set after DMC3, soon enough (though probably not this chapter)

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The next day was a nightmare for Kate. It all started when she woke up in her office, a scare when she was sure she had walked home the night before, and decided it was time to face the world. Not the best idea.

Kate's first priority that day was a news conference. The story had gotten around, well two stories in fact. The first was that the precinct was openly attacked by a gang, resulting in two casualties and the second was that a man they had brought in had ruined half the building in a fit of anger. Both true, sort of, so Kate was going to have a hard time dispelling both as mere myth and hearsay. Kate hadn't seen The Commissioner in that morning, which made her incredibly suspicious of the man. Not only had he lied to her about letting Tony go he seemed intent on no one going back to the Devil Never Cry shop and no one bothering Tony himself. His rules included her.

Kate's clock said nine thirty, and the conference was set for ten. That gave her a half hour to make something up. She clearly intended to wing it and hope for the best. It was all she could muster in her life now. With a heavy sigh Kate left her private office and was bombarded by the hustle and bustle of an increasingly crowded workstation. In fact people were lining up outside the door.

Kate approached the nearest officer, a young recruit named Doug. Doug, despite his bulk and muscle sat at a desk in a chair clearly not made for someone of his size. Doug had seen some terrible things and The Commissioner had decided to keep him off the streets for a while, as such he was the youngest person working a desk job in the whole of New York. "What're all these people doing here?" Kate asked him as he waved an elderly couple towards one of the private detective rooms behind him.

"Oh Kate." Doug sputtered, "Sorry I didn't see you there. Um, there was a big dump of snow last night and it caused a heap of trouble this morning when it came to the morning commute. I barely made it in myself."

"You were here all night again weren't you Doug?" Kate asked mildly.

"Oh, no. I went home and went to the bar with my friends. Yeah I had a great night I did." Doug swiftly said.

Kate clapped her hand on Doug's back and the young man hunched and turned red, "You need to get a life Doug."

"I'm trying Kate." Doug sighed, "If you want, you could come out with me sometime and help get one started."

"Are you asking me out?" Kate asked, "Really Doug, get better lines."

Kate walked away from the sputtering young recruit and made her way into the foyer. She noticed there was three receptionists, all helping separate people, all with car troubles. As Kate entered the other side of the precinct she found herself in an identical area to her workstation. Except with interrogation rooms at the back, and a media room on the far side of the station. Kate made her way to the media room, where several reporters waited within.

Kate entered slowly and took the podium. She looked straight at the single television camera as she had been instructed to before launching into her completely unprepared speech, "As some of you may have heard; our precinct was recently assaulted by five men."

There was a flurry of hands, "Um, yes?" Kate pointed at one of the male reporters in front.

"Do you know who these men where? Have they been apprehended?"

"Well," Kate began but the same reporter butted in.

"And furthermore, is it true that an arrested man caused property damage in one of your interrogation rooms before being released with no charges?"

Kate blinked.

"Well?" The reporter sneered.

"I…well first there was no man here causing property damage."

"We have photos of a completely torn apart interrogation room. Are you saying that our photos are wrong, or that they are of another interrogation room?"

"I…the pictures you've obtained do show a damaged interrogation room and…no arrested man made them…so no. No arrested man caused damages to our interrogation room." Kate made out, quite horribly.

"So who damaged your interrogation room?"

"It was…we believe it was a man named Tony Redgrave." Kate immediately knew that that was not what she should have said.

"So you have Tony Redgrave, the mercenary, in custody?" The reporter asked.

"Well, no." Kate answered sheepishly.

"You let him go."

"Yes."

"Why?" the reporter looked to his colleagues, "Does it not make sense to keep him in custody?"

"Well…we really had nothing to charge him with and…"

"So destroying a police interrogation room, that reminding you is paid by our tax dollars, is not an offence."

Kate sputtered.

Needless to say, in the half-hour the media conference took place, Kate had been prodded, attacked, and yelled at by angry reporters and most likely everyone who happened to be watching the broadcast. She had been completely roasted on live television. And now she was sitting in a relatively uncomfortable chair in front of an incredibly mad Commissioner.

"You're fired." The Commissioner said bluntly.

Kate choked, "I am?"

"Sorry, but that little debacle of yours in the news room means our precinct is going to need a scapegoat out of this situation?"

Kate looked intently at The Commissioners desk, "Oh." Was all she could muster.

"I could say you've gone on stress leave, if you'd like."

"That would be…um… okay." Kate rose from her seat, "It was nice working for you."

"Thanks for coming along for the ride." The Commissioner commented, "So, stress leave? Okay. Jackson! Oh Jesus how'd you get here so fast?"

Jackson shrugged, "I was just outside the door sir."

The Commissioner gripped the sides of his chair and pushed back into the spine of the chair, "Right up a stress leave notice for the detective here, and be sure to get her badge and gun.

And so Kate's day spiraled downward. Much like a toilet and she was the crap, she sure felt that way anyhow. Kate's mood wasn't even brightened when she exited the building and felt the cold snow beneath her. She made her way a good block from the precinct before she decided it was much better to get a cab home. Kate didn't own a car, mostly because cabs were near unavoidable in New York, and she could take a cruiser anytime she wanted. Well those days were at an end for her.

Kate had never really had a job other than policing, and quite frankly she didn't have any other extraordinary talents. Her saving grace was that it was December, which worked out for her simply because she always paid a years worth of rent and bills to her landlord in advance, so she only had to worry about feeding herself and getting the money together for next year. It was how her father had done things when she was a child, he didn't do any half assed pay by the month plans and neither did she.

But then the losing her job part fell back onto her mind, and she felt terrible again. Her brief cab ride proved no solace, nor did arriving at the large and largely unadorned townhouse sitting between two identical siblings. Kate rented the upstairs and had her own porch, which had a flight of stairs leading up to her very own door. All in all it was a good deal. Even her landlord was a great guy.

In fact Carl was sitting on his front porch with his wife, Carly. The elderly couple sipped tea together, the benefits of retirement as they so often said. For reasons Kate could not fathom the two of them were in love with the outside, even in the frigid cold New York was currently experiencing. Carl had said they wanted to be outside in the world for as long as they could manage. As Kate meandered past she caught herself about halfway up her stairs and looked down. Uncharacteristically neither Carl nor Carly had greeted her, as they almost always did when she returned. Kate was about say something before she realized they looked very much at peace, and left them to their thoughts. Kate unlocked her door and stepped inside.

Ignoring her shoes Kate stretched upwards and realized her lasts night rest had not helped much in the way of restoration. Kate surveyed her living quarters, they were more than she had when she lived at home, and was grateful to finally have a quiet and peaceful household. Even if it wasn't very organized; Kate had no ability to decorate accordingly and had never tried to.

The entire upstairs was one long hallway straight out of what Kate only assumed was her living room. The living room was relatively large compared to the other room and was only sparsely accommodated, making it appear all the larger. The long hallways lead past a small closet, where Kate kept her washer, dryer and hot water tank. Past the closet was her bedroom, which according to Carl had also been their son's bedroom. The small bathroom attached itself off to the side of the room, nuzzling itself behind the closet space. Past that was her kitchen, which wasn't very large at all, in fact after she had inserted all the things she needed in order to cook, she didn't have enough room to put a table in which left a large open space in the middle of the cluttered room that just looked remarkably odd. The last door of her rent home lead to a stairwell that went downstairs. It clearly appeared that there was not supposed to be a door there, but the couple had added it to give their resident some privacy.

Kate had not had this much time to herself. Generally she would be out in the cruiser right now, or in her office. Doing something; anything, but the dreariness and boredom began to set in far quicker than she had imagined it would. She soon found herself pacing across her living room; the television playing music and a large man did a stupid looking dance on the screen. She largely ignored it, her mind on her job. She had recurring thoughts of the precinct crumbling without her, and The Commissioner rushing to her for help. But then there were thoughts where everyone was having a party, with a massive banner saying 'Good Riddance Kate.' No matter what Kate did, and she even tried making an omelet at three pm, her mind always went back to her job.

And this boredom began to fester into hate. Hate for The Commissioner, who fired her. Hate for Tony, for being uncooperative and for being a general pain ever since she met him, regardless if he saved her life. She hated Wallace, for…something, she just hated him.

Thoughts of harming Wallace brought forth new thoughts, like where he had been that morning? Where was he now? And why was she thinking of Wallace?

Rifling through the classified as the sun sank below the buildings surrounding her little home Kate barely read any of the job offers, most needed an accounting degree of some kind and all the others were heinously boring. Kate didn't really care anymore. With a little sigh Kate was about to close the newspaper before she noticed a very familiar name.

Devil Never Cry sat unceremoniously under a delivery job and a quick way to get an engineering degree, with only a vague classification of pest extermination. There was a number beneath it, but it couldn't be right. There were three extra numbers in front of the area code and Kate could hardly fathom why that was. Kate tentatively looked at her phone, then back at the number, but decided to hell with that and threw the newspaper into the garbage. With a whirl Kate rose from her couch and mumbled incessantly under her breath. She stopped in the middle of the hallway on the way to the kitchen and shook her head; apparently the isolation was getting to her.

There was a knock at the door and for a second Kate looked to the end of the hall where the door downstairs was located. There was another knock and Kate jolted to attention, rushing to the front door.

"Oh. Hi Doug." Kate greeted the burly officer. Doug smiled warmly and scrubbed his sandy brown mop of hair.

"Hey Kate, I heard about what happened in the news conference and about Jack. He shouldn't have just fired you like that." Doug said, his earlier stuttering no longer affecting him for some unknown reason. Kate shivered as a cold gust of air rushed through her home. She hurried Doug inside and closed the door.

"Too late now I guess." Kate muttered, "I won't be getting my job back anytime soon. He said he would tell everyone I was going on stress leave." 

"We're a precinct with over a half dozen detectives, we saw through that pretty damn quick Kate."

"Oh."

"Oh hey I brought you these," Doug said and pulled a six-pack of Sleeman's Honey Lager from behind his back, "In case you needed to drown away your sorrows." Doug smiled, just in case Kate couldn't see he was joking. He ripped open the caps on two of the six and handed one to Kate. Doug raised the bottle to shoulder height and with a clang, struck it against the unprepared Kate, whose bottle was very close to her face. Oblivious to the near disastrous contact Doug took a large swig of the liquid.

He gasped a little as he swigged just a little too hard and Kate snickered at him like a teenager. "Doug, you looked like you could hold your liquor." Kate laughed forgetting her morning in the new camaraderie, "You want something to eat? I have mac'n'cheese and well, not much else."

Doug raised his hand "No, thanks, um, actually. You want to go out and get something to eat, like, at a restaurant?"

Kate placed her beer on the nearby living room table and clapped her hands, "Much better Doug." She laughed again, "Ok, we'll go get dinner."

The sun was completely gone by the time they had reached The Den, a small restaurant that served far more as a lounge area than any sort of eatery. Kate was impressed by Doug's choice of food; she had only been their once before as it was generally too expensive for a single cop's salary. Oh right, she didn't have a job. Thank you Doug for reminding her.

They ate anyway, mostly in silence, with the occasional awkward comment coming from Doug's end of the table. Most of these were either ignored or laughed off by Kate, whichever one she felt she hadn't used in a while. For a restaurant like The Den, the food arrived painfully slow.

There was a little less silence as they ate, mostly from scraping plates and mouths at work. But the two of them made small talk, as they were quickly getting stares from the other patrons. It was, in fact, because Doug looked rather young for his age and she, because of the day's events, seemed older than she really was. The restaurant was abuzz about the recent cougar sighting.

Kate was quite nearly in pains by the time the two of them left The Den and began walking, a good foot apart, back to Kate's home. Both of them huddled to themselves and breathed icicles and spat out smoke. As they walked Doug turned to her and asked, "So what are you going to do now?"

Kate at first appeared unresponsive, the cool chill and light made her look more dead than alive, but nonetheless she fought back the cold and shivers to answer, "I'm going home." She turned and looked at him as though he were an idiot.

"I meant, you know, job-wise?"

"Oh." Kate exclaimed, "I don't know. I could be a private investigator, it's like being a cop."

"I wouldn't know." Doug shrugged, "Except for those TV shows that have private detectives, they seem to have interesting lives. And they always have a contact in the police."

Kate smiled a little and shrugged, "Oh yeah, I'm sure you'd do just fine." They reached Kate's home in almost record time, despite the worsening weather that came out to play seemingly only at night. Doug waited anxiously as Kate fiddled with her keys, they were chilled to the bone and hers weren't doing much better. She let out a gasp as she opened the door finally and the two sort of friends bustled inside.

"God, why you got to be like that?" Doug asked the howling wind as he shut the door behind him. Then he looked around, "Hey didn't you turn off the lights?"

"Yes." Kate said slowly and lowered into a crouch and snuck to the side of her couch, watching the hallway back in towards the rest of her home.

"What are you doing?" Doug asked, "We opened the door pretty loud, and it was locked when we came."

Kate stood up sheepishly and then lowered again as two shadows made their appearance on the floor in the hallway. As the two shadows approached Kate let out another gasp as Carl, followed closely by Carly, appeared in the entranceway.

They smiled warmly at the former police officer and the off duty one. Their eyes were pitch black.

Kate slammed against the far wall with a cry. Doug tried to reach her but was thrown by the same invisible power that was currently holding Kate, suspended above the ground, against the wall.

"What are you doing?" Kate cried out as an invisible, clawed hand slashed her shoulder, leaving torn clothes and three shallow red marks.

"Hello, demons here." Carl sneered; his quiet, unassuming voice replaced with something Kate was certain weren't created to speak English.

"Oh dear." Carly swayed back and forth and approached the immobile Doug. She lifted him to his feet and his head fell backwards. He groaned, "Let me help you." She ran a finger down Doug's chest and he screamed. Steam rose from the line Carly had traced down his chest.

"Honey." Carl cooed to his wife. "They're wanted alive." He swaggered past Kate's peripheral vision and stopped square in front of her, blocking Kate's view of Doug and Carly.

"She is." Carly turned her head and Kate noticed small red orange pupils in the sea of black where their eyes should have been. "This one isn't him."

Carl turned sharply, "But…well half the bounty is more than no bounty I suppose." He returned to Kate, "People like you are always in high demand."

Suddenly Kate's door fell on its hinges and the cold air whipped in around them. Standing in the door way was The Commissioner, flanked by a large shadow. Carly hissed menacingly as Jack, The Commissioner, drew a pistol and fired two rapid shots into Carly's center mass.

Carly's head flung forward and she stepped back, but she did not fall. In fact, as she head rose, she just looked angry. Doug was on his feet and dashed at Carly, lowering into a tackle.

But he was flung back again, and held to the opposite wall Kate was. "Thank you deary." Carly said lovingly to her husband. Carly leaped at Jack.

The shadow behind Jack threw him forward onto the ground, where he proceeded to crawl out of the way so efficiently it looked rehearsed. The Shadow stepped forward and the wind blew the red leather of the Shadow into the light. Tony stepped into Kate's home.

Carly screeched like a banshee mid-dive as she approached the imposing Tony Redgrave. With a sharp abrupt movement Carly was stuck in the air before Tony. His hand wrapped around her throat. His other hand was on the hilt of his massive sword strapped to his back.

"Another demon…"Carl began to drawl. Tony appeared not to have moved, and Kate blinked as she found herself slumped against the ground. Carl was impaled to the couch. His eyes bled steaming darkness. Her landlord was dead.

"Hit men?" Tony seemed to ask Carly, though he didn't look to care one way or the other.

"You are here for the hit?" Carly stammered, "There can be deals made between us?"

"No deals." Tony said simply. He withdrew his silvery pistol and held it to Carlys forehead, "Only dead demons." There was a blinding flash as the muzzle kicked back sharply. Carly's head sank and her body went limp, she eyes steaming blackness the same as Carl's. Tony let her slump to the floor before him and he crouched beside her deaf ear and, barely audible to Kate, whispered, "I'll see you down there sometime."

Jack was on his feet, and gently brushing himself off, when Doug made his way to his knees. Crawling to the couch Doug used it as leverage to stand, and held onto it to stay there. Kate was not as lucky, so she decided the best thing to do was to stay put and try not to move her neck. Blackness seeped from the two corpses and within moments was no longer there. Tony strode across the room and pulled his sword from Kate's couch, revealing no actual rip. Kate added it to a growing list of things she didn't try to explain.

Jack ended the silence that had befallen the group, "I trust I will no longer be needed?"

"Only if there are witnesses that saw us break down the door." Tony replied in a very business like tone.

"Of course. If anything comes up I shall notify Enzo before the media get wind of it." Jack bowed low, "Always a pleasure Tony Redgrave." With a small, almost guilty wave to Kate Jack rushed out the entrance and was swallowed by the howling snowstorm.

"He knew about you." Kate said simply, she couldn't speak any other way.

"You didn't think The Commissioner of the precinct where I operate knew?" Tony raised a brow, "How dense are you?" He raised an eyebrow after he had impaled her landlord and shot his wife. "So why are you highly valued by the less…human aspects of this city?"

Doug raised his hands in defeat, "Hello, okay, I'm still here. And this whole non-human thing is new for me, obviously not for you two, but it is for me."

"Well it's obvious, for me anyway that I find out about this hit that's on you." Tony was unfazed by killings, or hits, or elderly telepathic demons. Kate looked at him oddly, "I did tell you Kate. Once you get into this little underworld of ours, it's nearly impossible to get back out."

"What do we do in the meantime?" Doug asked.

"Excuse me!" Kate butted in, "There's no we, Doug."

"I'm going to disagree Kate" Doug said, "Hell if I'm going back like I didn't almost die tonight."

Kate sank back. Her energy was depleted and no amount of argument jolted her into action. All she could do was lie back and let events around unfold. She couldn't affect them anyway. She felt very much as though she was drowning and she didn't know how to swim.

"You're going to find out about your heritage. There's got to be a reason they want you." Tony's eyes darkened, "From experience I'd say it's something genetic."

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	7. Chapter 7

I don't own Devil May Cry.

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For the next four days life passed by uneventfully for Kate. That was largely attributed to the massive snowstorm that ground nearly the entirety of New York to a startling stop. That was three days ago, and one day after the attack on her apartment. Kate rather preferred to call it an attack, not a hit, best to keep that off her mind.

She had heard nothing from Tony Redgrave, it was a though he had dropped off the face of the planet. Not that she really cared; frankly whenever he was around something was trying to kill her. They gave her, her gun back. Which was loaded even now as she sat on her couch without power, no back up generator and only a few candles to keep out the still howling winds. She didn't like the darkness anymore. At first it was soothing, like she had a migraine she never noticed halting, but now, she saw eyes everywhere. And claws too.

In the meantime Kate pondered her new profession. It was much like a bad TV show. She was the private investigator; Doug was Kate's inside man on the force, and Tony, well she didn't see where he fit in, except he killed things exceptionally well. Which was a decent enough reason to actually talk to the arrogant bastard. Just like a bad TV show all right.

Despite his demeanor Kate had, at first, taken his advice and begun researching her own background as well as her relative's backgrounds. As far as she found there was nothing special about them; no strange deaths, no insanity or mental illness. Her record was less clean because of her sister, but aside from hallucinations brought on by blood in the brain there was little supernatural to go on. But that was now at a stalemate, as was everything else in New York with no power to charge her computer.

Kate nonetheless had sent out several phone calls before the power went out. Her brother had not answered, but she left a message, her aunt was looking for the same things Kate was unable to, but specifically to her mother's side of the family. Her father and mother were looking up on her dad's side of the family except they had always been terrible at keeping track of these sorts of things.

So instead Kate was attempting to delve into Tony's past, on a quarter of a charge left on her laptop. Thanks to Google and a little ingenuity concerning what she actually looked for she found several snapshots of Tony, as well as what seemed like a cult website entirely devoted to finding out all they could on the guy. Most of what the people on the site said could be discarded offhandedly, simply because she had actually met Tony and knew he wasn't really an albino.

There were entire forums dedicated to his hair; everything from swooning women to hardcore people talking about a legend concerning a certain silver haired warrior from about the time of Christ. Some said he imitated the warrior, homage, or even a mockery of. None of them really knew and Kate quickly left the hearsay and speculation.

What was there was a picture of a massive tower. The one they said had erupted years earlier, causing damage in the metropolis that still wasn't quite cleared yet. In fact what really caught her eye in the picture was two things. The first was a massive shadow slowly sweeping past the Tower, like an enormous creature floating in the air. The second was much harder to make out, but was a small red spot falling from the side of the tower.

She moved to the next snapshot, which according to the small date found in the bottom left corner of the picture took place only milliseconds after the one before, she found the red dot far below where it had been before. She extrapolated that whatever the red dot was, it was moving very, very fast.

The next picture looked to be taken years later, outside the same office she had been inside. On the front steps Tony sagged against the door. He was with a petite brunette woman who, by the looks of it, was quite angry. The gun in her hand, pointed at Tony's chest didn't help. Beneath the picture was a small link to a sound file. It looked as though whoever took the picture was illegally eavesdropping on the conversation. Kate wasn't a cop anymore so it didn't bother her to click the link.

"I swear Da-Tony. I don't see why you insist on using that name." Kate heard a woman speaking and looked back at the picture. For some reason it seemed to fit her face.

"Same reason you use the name Lady." Kate definitely recognized Tony's voice. The audio cut quickly and there were some sounds of someone running. Then it stopped fully after a gunshot.

Kate paused for a moment, eighteen percent left on the charge, she decided to move to what the website called the facts page and began writing everything down in a fervor. Unknown birthdate, unknown place of origin and no blood type, nothing that helped her at all. The only thing Kate saw as quality new information was a single statement, 'Tony Redgrave is not his real name.' So what was his real name? Come to think of it, having two Tony Redgraves didn't make much sense, even if one was named after the other.

She gave her head and shake, and as her eyes refocused she suddenly saw Carl with Carly beside him. They stood in the middle of her living room, looking at her blankly for several seconds. Kate moved to rub her eyes and they were gone. Then her laptop shut off, it's battery spent immediately for some unknown reason. There was a knock on the door.

Kate jumped a little in her seat. No one in his or her right mind would be out in weather like that. Kate snatched the gun from the coffee table in front of her and slowly approached the door. Sliding it open a bit Kate poked her head outside, trying to keep as much heat in as possible. Wallace, in all his shaggy glory stood on her patio, and looked absolutely frozen. She opened the door fully and stepped out of his way.

"I'm going to actually need you to invite me in." Wallace shivered.

"I thought that was just for vampires." Kate pointed out.

"Good to know you've been reading. Rules still apply to me girlie. Wanna let me in. It's freezing."

"Oh alright. Come in." Kate ushered Wallace inside and was about to shut the door when a massive hand grasped it. Caleb appeared in the sliver of an opening and walked as well. He shut the door for her.

"Sorry to come by so unexpected," Caleb greeted her, "But the phones were out. So we just came by anyway."

Wallace scoffed and held a large bag in front of Kate's face, "Been awhile for anyone to get out of their houses, so we brought you some food. We thought you'd be pretty low on it by now."

Kate took the back reluctantly. It was true, she was running low on food, at least the kind of food one didn't need any appliance to cook. Just the idea of Wallace and Caleb Redgrave buying and bringing her groceries seemed entirely surreal, even by her now widened standards of surreal.

"No need for that." Wallace pointed towards her handgun, which was still in her hand and loaded. With the safety off Kate had hardly noticed it; one-way for some one to get hurt.

"You two braving it out there just to bring me food? Or is there a real reason you're here?" Kate began. "And where's Tony?"

"No clue." Wallace shrugged. "He got a visitor late the night before last."

"We haven't seen him since." Caleb finished. "Almost disconcerting really. The Council is in an uproar over his disappearance."

"Council?" Kate asked.

"He's a wizard." Wallace leant against Kate's right side wall, ignoring the perfectly fine couch. "The Wizard's Council likes things on their timetables, and under their thumbs. Even us Redgraves have to watch ourselves when dealing with that arrogant lot. Tony, being the powerhouse that he is, going missing doesn't seem to bode well for them."

Caleb sighed, "I get that you don't like them but I've still got to answer to them. Need one member of each cell to be a wizard, and answerable to the Wizard Council, according to the agreement."

"And each cell is supposed to have about five guys in it. Ours has three. We're pretty damn unique." Wallace made the comment and Kate looked at him blankly, "Oh right. Cells are what we call our groups. There's generally a cell to each major city along with a giant support network, mostly Ferinos."

Kate blinked and still looked at him with a dumb look of incomprehension on her face. Caleb tried instead, "Going back about three thousand years. When the Redgrave family first learned of demons they immediately began searching for ways to fight them. That led them to us wizards, who have been doing it for centuries. We agreed in a joint, cooperative conference to pool our resources. Our wizardry experience and their upcoming and then advanced technologies. The first demonic Regrave suggested we break up our members into cells and bring in the newly establishing Ferino Family for communication. That was about eighty years ago and it's still the way it is now."

Wallace clapped his hands, "Well done Caleb, you spoke more than three sentences."

Caleb merely grunted in response. Wallace smiled his fanged smile. Kate thought she'd never get used to that smile of his. "Well though, it does appear that we have a forth."

"She hasn't agreed to anything Wallace." Caleb said smartly.

Kate listened to the two bicker for a few moments. They seemed constantly at odds, or they just liked to be kept on their toes. Kate had no idea but she was about the shoot someone, "Shut up!" She yelled at them. Both immediately stopped and looked at her, waiting for more, "I, You two are the most, I ugh."

"I told you we have a speechless effect on women," Wallace chided.

Caleb rubbed his forehead and averted his eyes beneath his palm, "You've only known him for a week Kate. You'll get used to it."

"I'd better." Kate waved her hand, "So Tony is missing?"

"Yes."

"Did he go off with Lady?" Kate asked.

Wallace and Caleb looked at each other, then at the door, then at Kate. They both looked like they might just jump out the door and run away. "You sure have been reading." Wallace's voice broke a little.

"Lady, as far as we know is not in New York." Caleb sort of choked out. "How do you know her?"

"There's a site. On the Internet dedicated to Tony, which apparently isn't actually his name, Lady was on it in a video. I'd show you it, but there's no charge on the battery." Kate explained, rather blandly.

Caleb's lips pursed and Wallace shrugged a little, seemed more like a twitch. Caleb opened his mouth, and then closed it. Wallace opened his, "We're going to need to see that site. Caleb, do your magic stuff."

Caleb sighed and reached into his coat. He withdrew a medium sized wooden pole like it was a gun. Well it looked medium sized, but it was being compared to Caleb, who was huge. There were runes on the top, nine in total, and two of them pulsed red, then a sickly green before going out and starting the process again. There was writing along the middle of the staff, stopping at another bit of wood that looped around the exact center of the staff. It looked like some sort of grip. At the very bottom it looked like it had a steel shoe nailed into it, with very large nails. All in all it looked very impressive.

"Wish I had a signature weapon." Wallace muttered barely audible under his breath.

Caleb looked directly at Kate's laptop with one of those desperado looks in a western shoot out. He didn't seem entirely happy, but he rarely looked happy despite his rather jovial and polite nature. As Kate pondered this she barely noticed Caleb's mouth moving in the same motions over and over. One of the runes flashed a bright green before dimming to red and finally going out like a light bulb. Caleb craned his neck, "Try it now."

Kate did so and as she opened the lip of the computer it flickered to life, "Only fifteen percent?"

Caleb leant against her wall, "I can push the electricity through what it can't pass through normally. Not what it can't. Something's obviously wrong with the cables outside." He thumbed in the direction of the wintry blizzard outside.

"You can't just make it appear?" Kate asked, "You know, like magic."

"No unless you want your laptop to melt." Caleb leant against the wall once more and closed his eyes. The rune that had previously gone out began to pulse a dim orange. Kate turned to Wallace, who shrugged.

"The site." Caleb groaned a little and the rune pulsed stronger now. Kate opened her laptop and retraced her electrical steps and found the site, littered around the sheer randomness of the Internet.

Wallace mulled over the site, taking in a little from each depository of knowledge these creators had. "They don't have a lot." Wallace said finally, after about fifteen minutes of searching. Kate looked up at him in disbelief. "But." He began, and then stopped.

"We shall find them anyway." Caleb sounded worn and Kate looked up at him. His eyes drooped sullenly and there were small bags under them. She looked to his staff, still in his hands four of the runes pulsed red and green. "If they are this inquisitive, we should find them. Especially with their fetish for getting everything on tape."

"Security risk." Kate reasoned, "Got it. Let me work my technological wizardry and we'll find out who they are."

Wallace looked at her, "You're a wiz with computers?"

Kate smiled, "Nope." She picked up her cell phone, at least they still worked, and began dialing, "Hello Doug. Hey it's Kate. We're looking for some one, or a number of people. I'll give you the URL? Okay. I know it's the thing at the top of the page. Call me. Oh yeah sure." Kate took the phone away from her ear, "He should be calling back soon."

Wallace and Caleb looked at each other, Wallace smirked his smirk, "Wanna watch TV." He looked at Caleb, who shook his head, "Oh right no power. We're going to have to talk aren't we?"

"Yeah." Caleb sighed.

"Oh yes." Kate smiled, "Answers."

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	8. Chapter 8

I don't own Devil May Cry.

Thanks to everyone who reviewed.

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"So it's Date?" Kate asked.

"No. It's Dante." Wallace muttered.

As it turned out Wallace, who was generally tight lipped, would tell you almost anything for the right price. Fortunately for Kate she still had four remaining Sleeman's from four nights ago. As such four empty bottles sat in the table, one knocked on its side, before Wallace. Caleb, for the most part, had not moved from his place against the wall. Must be thing of his.

"So why use the name Tony? I mean. Well?" Kate managed to finish the sentence, sort of.

"We don't really know where the name Tony came from. If it even has any origin at all. Honestly it was only a mistake that I even found out about it." Wallace stated. Wallace frowned a little and looked to the empty bottles.

"I don't have any more booze." Kate said under her breath.

"Oh that's okay." Wallace grumbled a little.

Caleb pushed off from the wall and seemed to stagger. With a heavy, ponderous step Caleb made his way about halfway across the room before stopping. "Your friend should have called back by now."

Wallace looked at his companion and snorted, "Where the hell have you been? The guy called, like, five minutes ago."

"He did?" Caleb sputtered, "What are we still doing here?"

Kate looked at him, "You remember the blizzard right?"

Caleb mumbled under his breath and walked towards the door. Soon he stood before the howling blizzard and horizontal hail. His teeth were clenched and his jaw appeared locked in concentration, "Awh hell." He finally said.

"What?" Wallace raised an eyebrow, "And seriously, close the door you're letting all the heat out."

Caleb did indeed close the door and he turned to his companions, "I can't work my magic on it. This isn't a blizzard."

"What are you saying?" Kate asked.

Caleb sighed and looked out the door again, "What I'm saying is that this storm isn't natural. Some one is creating it."

Wallace looked at Caleb blankly, "Wouldn't that take a whole hell of a lot of power? I mean this thing is all over New York."

Caleb nodded, "Yeah. It's more likely we're dealing with more than one wizard, probably six or seven, depending on how powerful they are."

"Sweet." Wallace looked as though he were adding another check on an invisible list, "So now we've got rampaging dark wizards. Some creepy, stalking nerds who have a really wonderful site with everything they need on us on it. What else is there?" Wallace placed his forefinger on his chin, "Oh right. Tony is fucking gone."

"Dante" Kate said.

"We're using Tony." Wallace exclaimed, "He wants us to use Tony, so we use Tony. Caleb?"

Caleb still watched the storm outside. He swayed slightly, as though in a trance, "I can't touch it, even with the staff. First priority should be warning the others. A group of dark wizards using this magnitude of power is rarely, no never good. Second is."

"Killing them?" Wallace said absently.

"Yeah probably." Caleb returned.

"While I do…What?" Kate asked.

Caleb shrugged, "There's three of us and three problems. I'll go talk to the Wizard Council. Wallace, see what you can dig up, please not literally, on this site. Kate, you keep searching into your past. There's probably still a hit out on you and we don't know why."

Wallace clapped his hands abruptly, "Meeting adjourned. Way to take charge, ass." Wallace stood for a moment, swayed on his heels as though he were about to sit back down. But he stayed on his feet and once Wallace had somehow made it to the door he looked sick. He opened the door before closing it again, "Fuck that. So much for an exit."

Caleb nearly punched Wallace in the face.

"Base of operations anyone?" Kate said mildly as she leant back into the sofa and, "Hey do you guys hear a plane?" She interrupted herself.

"No I don't hear a fucking…" Wallace stopped for a moment, "Oh, now I do. So?"

Kate looked at him like he was an idiot, a perfectly acceptable thing to do, "Planes aren't going to try landing or lifting off in this kind of weather. If we had a battery radio we'd probably know for sure if all flights were cancelled."

Caleb nodded and stated, "So, the only planes out there must…be?"

Kate sighed, "You two really don't have much in the intuition department do you?"

Wallace put his hands to his chest, "Ouch, that cuts deep." Wallace laughed, "I've been alive for over a hundred years. I've got a lot in every department."

Kate looked at him, "A hundred…"

"And you still can't act over twelve. Very impressive Wally." Caleb snickered, actually snickered.

"If you call me Wally one more time," Wallace made some threatening gestures with his elbows and fists.

"The planes…" Caleb tried to steer everything back into focus.

Kate still looked at Wallace. She gave her head a shake, "The planes either don't know the weather conditions, which is unlikely. Or it's connected to this somehow."

Caleb shook his head, "The strongest of us wizards can teleport, and almost all of us can do it if we can see just where we're teleporting to. I don't think they'd have much use for a plane."

Wallace snickered again, "Way to shoot her idea down Caleb. She's still a newbie at this supernatural stuff and hell it's true. I can't remember the last time we actually looked for a mundane reason for a problem. Like Tony said, sometimes it isn't the big bad demon, sometimes its just greed. I mean, these dark wizards are still human."

Caleb nodded, " I guess. I'm going to be gone for a couple days. Something like this requires a full report, in person, to the Wizard Council in Miami."

"Miami?" Kate watched Caleb in surprise.

"Bunch of old men. No place better than Miami." Wallace laughed.

Caleb closed his eyes and his staff's runes all lit up like fireworks, "Hush up Wallace. I'll be back in a couple days." A blue and black light surrounded Caleb and he began to shrink. Then his arm was gone, then his leg. Soon all but his head remained. Caleb's eyes opened and what was left of him dematerialized into separate particles of dust. He was gone.

Wallace turned to Kate with a smile, "See that. It's why I should always leave first; I can't top an exit like that. Oh well. Time to brave this unnatural storm of ours. I'll be at Tony's if you need me. Oh hey I just though of something."

Kate looked up at him from her place on the sofa waiting.

"Okay so we know this isn't natural weather but this has been happening since almost the beginning of December right?"

"Right…?"

"Well this is the first time we actually had it snow during daylight, usually it's only been at night. This means something."

Like what?" Kate asked.

"How the hell should I know?" Wallace laughed, "Well, yeah, bye." He waved sheepishly and rushed out the door. Kate saw his feet bound down the street with that inhuman speed of his. She returned to the sofa and closed her eyes for a moment. And all of them were there.

The secretary watched her out of the side of her vision; really she was looking outside, at the storm. Carl and Carly looked right at Kate and Kate's heart stopped, or at least it felt like it did. She didn't really know. Then blackness surrounded them, and her. Soon the blackness covered everything and the three ghosts (for lack of a better word) looked like they were suffocating in it. Then they fell and melted away into the blackness that permeated the ground of her apartment.

"Any ideas about that?" Other Kate appeared next to Kate. Still the same Barbie doll self Other-Kate was Kate at her best. Like she had spent a good two hours putting on the right amount of makeup and doing her hair up perfectly for a special occasion.

"You're the one in my subconscious." Kate muttered.

"And you expect me to have answers?" Other Kate asked, almost pleaded. She walked until she stood face to face with Kate, "Okay, I've been doing research of my own in here."

"And what have you found?" Kate let out.

"Well here's the problem. I can't get into your earlier memories." Other-Kate said, "There's some big time repression going on in this place."

"Repression?"

"Yeah, that and there are inconsistencies in the early memories I can get to."

"Like?" Kate pressed

"Well. I mean, I don't know if you noticed but…" Other Kate began.

"Out with it."

"Okay, you're always the same in them.

"Um, yeah, huh?" Kate sort of said.

"You're always the same age, same haircut, same people. Like…"

"They're fake." Kate finished.

"Exactly." Other-Kate reasoned.

Kate looked up into the darkness for a moment, "So there is a hit out on me in this demon underground of New York. My childhood memories aren't real and I've got a gut feeling that I didn't meet Tony by coincidence."

"I thought his name was Dante." Other-Kate stated. "Oh and the gut feeling came from me."

"Do all my gut feelings come from you?" Kate asked. "And like Wallace said, he uses the name Tony for a reason, probably to protect himself I guess."

Other-Kate laughed, Kate thought it was a first showing of emotion from the subconscious, something or other that she was. "Yeah probably. Speaking of Wallace, looks like he's a bit old for you."

"I swear if you go into this again…" Kate growled.

"Okay Hun, jeez. But seriously, you're seeing dead people. You've been having nightmares. Hey I saw them, don't you deny them. If I weren't in our head I'd say you were having a breakdown. But that's not true. Either way you can't keep fighting this reality you're being pulled into. It'll shatter your conscious mind. It's real and it can definitely kill us, just as sure as Doug has a giant scar on his chest now."

"Okay. So what's the plan of action?" Kate asked, shrugging a little.

"Okay so. Here's the thing, all your early memories are fake. The first genuine one I found is from when you were twelve. But everyone in your fake memories actually exist in the real world."

"So either their memories are fake too or they've been lying to me the entire time. I doubt my brother could do that to me. It would be hard for any kid to do. So that means either he's in the same boat with me on this or he's…"

"Just another bystander. Like your parents, which frankly we don't know if they are your parents or not right now." Other-Kate finished. "I guess we can't do anything until your brother emails you back. I'll keep trying to wedge my way into those repressed memories, you won't like it if I actually pull one out…"

"But it's got to be done." Kate said. "I get it. So I'll look into things that happened to me?"

"Around Summer when you were twelve." Other-Kate supplied.

"Alright then." Kate said, "So…nice talking to you?"

"Just close your eyes." Other-Kate instructed, "When you open them again you'll be back in your apartment."

Kate did so, and she was back in her apartment.

Aside from the startling amount of weirdness that seemed to be unstoppably seeping into her life, Kate felt at ease for the first time in days. Kate closed her eyes again and imagined her twelve summer. There was the annual camping trip. Her sister was there, bundled up in wools and clothe. For some reason that summer had been cold, Kate remembered strong winds blowing the trees. There was suddenly a darkness suspended over her campsite, and her father and brother ushered them under the tarp they have erected over their supplied table.

As the rain poured they played Jenga. Every time she tried the tower fell. There was a flash in her mind and the tower Tony Redgrave had dealt with entered her mind in place of the falling wooden blocks. There was a great whale, or shark, something flying around tower like a guardian. Tony was clear now, falling from the side of the tower. Red…. gargoyles maybe, swam in the air around him. His two handguns moved faster than he fell and the gargoyles were felled in red splatter. No wonder he was a legend.

Kate's eyes opened with a snap and Other-Kate stood before her, "Odd." Was all Other-Kate could say. She no longer looked perfect. In fact, she looked worse than Kate did.

"What was that?" Kate asked.

"Not you're memory, that's for sure." Other-Kate closed her eyes and exhaled deeply, "I…haven't a clue why that was there. It isn't a fake memory, or a repressed one either. It's just there, implanted I guess. There's something…holy shit."

"What?" Kate was trying to ask. Then the image, well video really, struck her.

It was a light room. Not a white one, but just light. In the middle was a single, very black, very…swirling, lounging chair. In it was a tall man, well not so tall, but large? His size had nothing to do with his appearance, nothing to do with how tall he was, or how she could see the outline of toned muscle beneath a purple overcoat. It had everything to do with his eyes, and his posture, and the way he looked at her. Like she wasn't looking into a memory, or something implanted in her head, but instead he was looking into her.

It didn't last long, but how long it lasted wasn't the problem because she could barely breathe. She choked on oxygen, was blinded by her sight, and made deaf by her hearing. She tasted the air, like a snake and it left a coppery bitterness in her mouth. There was a hand on her shoulder and she looked up at the man.

At first she thought Tony. Or Dante, or whoever; but this man was older. He felt like Michael, her brother, standing there over her like an angel. Kate felt a small jolt of electricity flow through her body and it drained her. She sagged under his touch and he knelt to one knee beside her. He was soothing.

There was a shadow in fire that danced before her. Kate squinted hard to see the massive sword twirling in one of his hands. He had no opponents but the shadow fought with a vengeance, with grace, with the skill of thousands of years. The man was gone, and this shadow filled her with the same soothing feeling the man had given her. He stopped his fighting and looked right at her, and his eyes shone red. Mosquito wings outstretched behind him and curved horns jutting out from the side of his head the shadow bowed low, like a gentleman.

The shadow began to dissipate into smoke and other shadows appeared around her. The fire simmered and the shadows became a chair, a sofa, a table, and walls. She was back in her apartment, but how she had gotten beside the door she did not know.

Kate realized she had been breathing heavily, like she had just run from a pack of vampires. As she tried to step forward she almost fell to both her knees. There was a sharp pain in her shoulder, where the man had held her. She rolled the shoulder, but that didn't help. "Jesus." Kate said aloud, "What the hell was that?"

No one was there to answer. But an answer came nonetheless.

Kate fell to her knees and she felt bile burning her throat. There were four men and one woman with a clipboard. They looked like doctors, but the kind of doctor you didn't want putting you under. Two were young, one looked like he could be her grandfather and the others were somewhere in the middle. The woman had her hair in a bun and looked like she could pass for attractive with a little makeup and the pinecone that was obviously up her ass was removed.

The men were unremarkable in any way. Well, one wore glasses. "The parents do not suspect?" None of them said, but one had.

The others nodded, "They believe it is a flu vaccine." Another voice answered.

"Good." Came the first voice.

There was laughter, a woman's laughter, "What?" The first voice asked.

"Just…" The woman answered, "I'm imaging what the ethics board would say if they found out we were meddling with demonic blood. Creating hybrid warriors from unsuspecting humans."

"They'd laugh in our faces." A third male voiced. "Hell we're giving the parents clones until these kids are twelve and we're done with them."

"It is necessary. What happened back then is legends and pagan folklore now. But it will happen again, if not sooner than later." The first voice melded with the woman's as they voiced the same opinion, "We'll need these warriors. Whether they want to fight or not."

"And if this invasion they're so afraid of doesn't come in ours, or their lifetimes?" One asked.

"The blood is being woven into their DNA as we speak, whatever powers we are giving them will pass of to their offspring." The man and woman said together. "Too bad it was impossible to put this into the prenatal stage of the fetus, but we couldn't risk it affecting the mother."

Kate looked down at the five babies. Three boys and two girls, which reminded her strongly of the Power Rangers for some reason. That snapped her back to her apartment. Which wasn't pretty, or in the right dimensions.

Actually that was because she had vomited, leaving a trail of what looked like Mini Wheat's and yellowy bile water, all the way to where she had fallen, struck her head, and passed out. Hence why things weren't in the right dimensions, her head was sideways. Other-Kate stood over top of her.

"Sorry about that." Other-Kate mumbled, "I don't really know what I'm pulling out of here until, well, it's out. You've looked better by the way."

Kate looked up at her and dug her hand into the ground, pushing herself up onto her side, "That was…"

"Sickening? I can see that. I saw all of it too."

"Oh." Kate muttered. She rose to her feet and then fell backwards a bit. "Think you could um?"

"Nope." Other-Kate said, "You're forgetting. I'm part of our brain; I'm not actually in the room. So no paper towel for you."

"Right." Kate said, "I think I'll just lie down."

Other-Kate prissed up, "That's a wonderful idea, you could use some sleep."

Kate stumbled and mumbled her way to the coach, which thankfully was close. "You're still talking?"

"I have endless amounts of energy," Other-Kate said. "It's one of the good things about being a bunch of electrical currents in your brain."

"Oh." Kate lied down on her side and closed her eyes, "Ugh, this is impossible." She cried out as she sat up, "I can't sleep with all these questions."

Other-Kate just stood there, attentive as a puppy. Kate smashed a couple buttons on her laptops keyboard and the screen popped up in a flash of light. "Hey, Michael emailed back. Hey, he's coming here. Hey, oh, he's seeing them too."

Other-Kate's mouth gaped open, "He's seeing them? He hasn't even met Carl and Carly before."

Kate sagged back into the sofa for probably the millionth time that day, "He's seeing his own versions. But dead people nonetheless."

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	9. Chapter 9

I don't own Devil May Cry.

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Kate was lying in her bed when she heard the door rattle. She rose, but not quick enough as Wallace staggered from the kitchen, where he had been burning something, to the front room before she had even had time to put pants on. As such Michael, the typical older brother that he was entirely caught off guard by a shirtless, lanky, and grinning man answering his sister's door.

Kate appearing in the background seconds later in a backward white t-shirt and sweatpants did not help. Neither did the ruffled hair.

"Hi?" Michaels voice rose in pitch. Wallace removed himself from the doorway and gestured Michael to enter in lieu as any verbal response. Kate waved, and then scratched the back of her neck.

"Kate?" Michael's voice appeared to have returned to it's normal pitch, which was somewhere between Wallace and Caleb's voices.

"You going to come in?" Wallace snarled a little, with a wolf's grin.

Michael held fast for a moment, his right hand in a bundle of white knuckles. Michael took a step forward and closed the door behind him. The storm had passed, at least during the day, and snow was piling the sidewalks from the fall and the shovellers, making most of the city practically impassible for pedestrians.

Kate looked at Wallace, who, by the way, was only there because he was kicked out of Tony's office once Tony returned. Wallace showing up at Kate's door, unannounced, was quite starling, as was hearing that Tony had a new partner, some blonde woman. Kate hadn't gone out to meet her yet. Dante, Wallace had said. He wanted to be called Dante. Apparently whatever purpose the name Tony Redgrave had served was no longer applicable.

Sadly, all these events lead to the one currently happening in Kate's living room. An event that consisted mostly of awkward looks and sheepish glances at one another. Michael was only an inch shorter than Wallace and that inch apparently went to his shoulders, making him broader than Wallace by a goodly amount, though not as much as Caleb (Who wasn't back from Miami yet). He no longer had the medium length curly blonde hair Kate remembered, it must have been easier for him to simply shave his head while he was in Turkey. It certainly looked tanned for one thing.

"Wallace." Wallace extended his hand.

"Michael." Michael grasped Wallace's hand and squeezed hard enough for Kate to see his forearms bulge in his short-sleeved button up shirt. Surprisingly, all things considered about him, Wallace grimaced at the hard squeeze. "Are you two?"

"No." Kate said, "He's a friend whose staying with me while he gets his apartment all sorted out."

Michael looked hard into Wallace's eyes, which portrayed nothing, "No he's not." Michael kept his eyes on Wallace. Kate looked at her brother in shock.

"Excuse me?"

"I don't know." Michael turned briefly to acknowledge his sister and then returned to his glare, "Started happening in Turkey. If I look into some ones eyes long enough I can tell a little about them. It's why I'm here, and why I'm not surprised you started emailing me shortly after it started happening."

"About a week ago right?" Wallace asked.

"Yeah." Michael's face crunched up as he answered, "Good guess."

Kate twiddled her thumbs, "Actually it's when stuff started happening to me too. And when I met this guy. Come to think of it now that you're here, and experiencing these things, it would be smart to go see him. He's sort of our expert."

Wallace nodded. So did Michael. "I have things in the taxi still," Michael supplied, "He's still out front if you two want to share a cab."

"Oh yay." Kate muttered.

Dante's building had changed. Well not changed, but there appeared to be a wall about halfway between the door and where Kate remembered there being a wall before and everything got squished forward. "Huh?" Was all she said.

Wallace looked at her and sucked air in, "Oh. Caleb did it a couple days ago. We had kind of felt for a while that just one big room was two public. We couldn't have god knows who just wandering in and overhearing some of the things we say. Hence meeting room in the back, business up front."

"Eclectic." Michael sounded like he was asking a question. His eyes wandered a lot.

Where one might expect Dante to be lounging behind a massive, wooden and thoroughly beaten to hell desk Kate was entirely surprised to see a buxom, blonde, leather-clad woman. Wallace bowed, "Kate, meet Trish."

Trish looked up from…some paper or something; Kate couldn't see it very well. "Hi." Kate said into relative empty air.

Trish looked her up and down and suckled her thumb for a second, "Who is she?"

Wallace turned to Kate, and then back to Trish, "This is Kate. We told you about her, and the guy over by the liquor cabinet is her brother Michael. They're the ones we told you to let in back if they asked. And Caleb, but he's still down south."

Trish appraised Michael and winked his way. Michael looked her up and down too, and he winked back playfully, "Dante is in the back, studying."

Michael picked up a half empty bottle of rum and ran his finger down its center. "I'll stay here and look around." He said without looking up.

Wallace shrugged and pushed he way through the cramped space to the door in the back. Kate followed him and they entered the darkened back room. It was as Kate remembered the back half of Dante's studio like quarters to be like. The bathroom door still sat at the far wall, as did the small kitchen. There was the pool table, next to it another table where Dante leaned over, peering at a particularly sharp and ugly sword.

Dante didn't seem to notice them; he looked completely engrossed in his work. He wore the same dark red leather and black that he always had, but he somehow seemed…older, more at peace. There was a book open about halfway through in front of him, and there was an illustration of the very same sword that currently occupied the center of the table.

Kate looked around, and it seemed like the back room was some sort of bad haunted house. It was dim, with some randomly illuminating light surrounding Dante and his sword. The walls were covered in corpses of what Kate could only assume were demons and off to one side three iron spokes stuck out of the wall; two sets of gauntlets and a three pronged nunchuck like weapon. Wallace spoke as he approached, "Dante, you look completely at ease." Dante looked tense as hell.

Dante looked up, straight forward for a moment until he apparently realized the sound had come from his left, "Wallace, Kate. You managed while I was gone?"

"No attacks, nothing." Wallace confirmed, "Looks like even monsters hate the cold."

Dante snorted, "Kate, you look…you want to ask me something?"

"Yeah actually," Kate began.

"Why I used the name Tony Redgrave?" Dante interjecting, "Yeah I'm a psychic. Frankly I used it to hide. Heavy hitters in the Underworld come after me from time to time, being an illustrious and legendary mercenary is an easy way for me to hide in plain sight and still do my job."

"And not now?" Kate asked. Even Wallace's ears perked up to hear Dante's response.

"I went to an island. It was a trap made by the Emporer of the Underworld." Dante explained, sounding pretty cautious.

"And you got out?" Kate pressed.

"I did one better. I kicked that asshole right back into the Underworld." Dante said, "Ha. He won't be bothering me ever again."

"So no need for Tony?"

"Whose Tony babe," Dante laughed, "Wallace was trying to tell me, awh damn what was it? Oh right. He wants you to be our fifth member. Wait he explained cells right?" Wallace laughed with him.

"Remember I'm here bud."

"Yeah." Kate answered, without acknowledging Wallace. "Five guys in major cities working together. I'm guessing it'll be you, Wallace, Caleb, me and this Trish."

"Oh yeah her." Dante flicked his ear, "She's kinda a long story. Okay so, how's the research coming?"

"Well," Kate said, "I fond out that where my brother and I were born, that they took us or something and infused demon powers into us for an upcoming invasion. I saw five, but who knows how many there actually are."

Dante stared at her blankly, "Oh my God." He said quietly, "I cannot believe this is happening. I mean, how cliché can you fucking get?"

"Doesn't matter how cliché it is bro." Wallace muttered, "If they're infusing demonic powers into youngsters so they'll grow up and be super soldiers we gotta stop them."

"No black magic." Dante wavered the idea on it, "We don't mess with humans without it."

"Black magic. Science. Global warming." Wallace snickered, "All the fucking same to me."

Dante huffed, "Fine. And the storm?"

Wallace and Kate shrugged. They did not, or even try to explain to Dante what the storm was all about. Frankly only Caleb knew, and he was buggering off in Miami with the wizards. Though Kate felt a little better having a family around her, even if it wasn't hers. Kate stared at the far wall and barely realized Dante had already hefted the blade formerly on the table and suspended it on the wall. Now he had a book in his hand and he was reading beneath his breath.

Wallace had stepping into the kitchen and was currently leaning against the fridge, his arms crossed and a beer in his right hand. Kate didn't remember what time it was, but it was before noon. Well done, Wallace, you just drink your way to AA. Kate stubbornly stood there, thinking about tapping her foot impatiently but decided to go with an icy glare instead. Of course neither of them were looking at her.

Kate ducked a little, but still couldn't see the title of the book Dante was reading. For all she knew it could be War and Peace, seemed about the right size. Dante looked up and stared past her. Kate looked behind her, then back at Dante. "What?" Kate asked.

Dante motioned for her to hush. Kate snorted in an unladylike manner. Then the phone rang. Then Kate could hear Trish's voice whisper softly into the back room. Kate heard a jumble of vocal sounds like, "Ugnn, where, agin." Kate listened even harder and something happened, "75 Slums, gotcha." Kate heard Trish say clearly, as though they stood side by side. Kate exhaled and her hearing dulled again.

Dante looked at her oddly. She ignored him. "75 Slums?" He roared into the front.

"Yeah." Trish said, "Password too."

"75 Slums…bar right? Darrell?"

"Only been here for two days here Dante."

"Oh right."

Dante gave Michael a look as he snatched up his matching pistols and threw a massive, silvery broadsword onto his back. By sheer will it stayed suspended there. He reached for a shotgun that was with an arsenal of firearms against the wall. He deposited it somewhere in that coat of his. Seeing the arsenal Kate took a rather large pistol, she had never seen one of them before but it was too small to be a Desert Eagle but certainly fired the same .50 caliber bullets. "Any ammunition?" She asked, checking the bottom of the grip.

Dante smirked, "Enchanted, no need for ammo. I found the spell out when I was about fourteen and bullets were expensive, and not easily bought for a minor. Just pull the trigger and make sure you wanna hurt what you're aiming at."

Kate let out an, "Aha."

Wallace snatched up a shotgun in which the barrel had been sawed near the wooden base and looked it over once. Trish threw him a duffel bag and he stuffed another four shotguns like in into the bag, and then slung a pump action shotgun over his shoulder.

"Compensating?" Dante looked his brother over once.

"I like things that go boom."

Trish leaned over to Kate's ear and whispered, "Are they always like this before a fight?"

"How should I know." Kate whispered back, "I've only known them for a week."

"Oh so you and Wallace aren't…"

Kate threw up her hands (Note: Bad thing to do while holding a firearm) "Why does everyone think that?"

"Sorry." She said, "And Michael?"

"My brother."

"Oh, so hands off too." She sounded sullen.

"He's an adult," Kate said. Had to give the woman something. Kate got a sickening visual image. Ew.

Everyone was particularly surprised when Michael picked up a gun that looked like a cross between a pistol and a submachine gun. They were further surprised when he slammed the chamber into place, fixed the stock and looked entirely like a military man. "I met a guy." He said lamely. Trish looked disappointed, before she realized what he meant.

"Okay." Dante said, "Trish, hold down the fort?"

"We are in a building Dante. Not a fort."

"God I wish you'd stop taking things so literally." Dante snarled, "I mean, cut my awesomeness much?"

Trish just nodded absently and fell backwards into the leather chair behind the front desk. Dante rushed to the front door and kicked it open powerfully, "Hi ho silver…away…." He laughed and jumped down the front steps and practically leapt onto a motorcycle parked outside.

Kate and the others called another cab.

75 Slums was a rough neighborhood. Well, as rough as Dante's neighborhood, but a whole hell of a lot poorer, making muggings a nightly ritual for thugs in the area. Kate had been down there only a couple times in her policing career and neither time did she ever feel safe, or secure, or warm and fuzzy all over. It just didn't happen down there.

Thankfully Dante's roaring motorcycle and flying silver hair, which was illegal said a voice in the back of Kate head, sent up a blaring signal to any would be assailants that said, "Fuck with me and get fucked up."

Darrills Bar, aptly named Darills Bar looked fine enough on the outside if one ignored a relatively large blood splatter on one of three windows that lined the bar front. Dante pulled up outside and hopped off his motorcycle. Kate expected him to go rushing in but instead he stayed back and waited for them. The cab peeled out as soon as they closed the doors.

Wallace opened his duffel bag and took out a single sawed off shotgun. Dante twirled his guns in his hands and watched the door, though he appeared more interested in the, "Live Music Friday Nights" neon sign that hung to the right of the great oaken door. Michael took a step forward and placed his hand around the door handle gently and looked back. Keeping the door as cover Michael opened the door slowly. As it became half open Dante rushed forward and rolled inside, his coat trailing behind him. Unnecessary yes, totally cool looking, also yes.

There was blood everywhere. No bodies, just blood. Everything looked set up for customers and seemed eerie in its silence. Then there was a car crash.

Or at least it sounded like one, in facts several grim reaper wanna-bes came out of what could be accurately described as shattering glass. Dante immediately shot one in the head. Good start.

Kate started shooting, Wallace rushed forward and ducked under what had to be the lamest baseball swing ever and sent brought his shotgun to bear. There was a flash of light and the monster became little for than particles of dust. Wallace's shotgun's barrel had melted shut. He grabbed another from the duffel bag. Michael began shooting and for all his cool looking stances hit the reapers with every third or fourth shot. Dante was much better at it, in fact, he didn't miss and currently had his guns pointed in opposite directions.

The grim reapers kept coming. There was at least a dozen closing slowly in on them. Dante thrust his sword in a whirlwind and then rushed forward and stabbed one, shattering it into dust. He spun his shotgun around him in a display, sending reapers ducking for cover or hitting the ground hard. Dante jumped back rather than pressed the advantage.

Now why would he do that? Kate thought. Then she thought, what the hell was that? Turned out it was Wallace, firing his final two sawed-off shotguns simultaneously. He unslung his pump action shogun and began shooting at a steady pace.

Dante was protecting them, or more likely just she and Michael. That's why he never left a ten feet radius of their little group. But there was no end to the grim reapers and the muscles in her finger were beginning to seize up on her. This smelled far too much like an ambush from her perspective. But who would do that.

Cue large blunt object to the back of the head.

Fade to black.

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	10. Chapter 10

I don't own devil may cry

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Holy crap.

Kate actually woke up.

Not that it mattered much, what with pitch black and no sounds to speak of she might have well still been unconscious. Hey, she was moving.

"Hello?" Kate called out tentatively.

There was a groan and then some ruffling clothes. "Hi?"

"Michael?' Kate asked.

"No it's Kate. I'm Michael.

"What?"

"Oh wait." Michael whispered, "Your head hurt like hell too?"

"Ya think." Kate answered.

"Hey guys." A third voice said.

"Wallace?" Kate asked.

"And there goes my…never mind. It's Doug." Doug mumbled.

"Doug? What the hell are you doing here?"

Kate could almost see the faint outline of her brother, but it was still too dark and her eyes were having trouble adjusting. Then she saw him as if a small sun was there to help.

"Kate…your eyes are glowing." Doug's voice rose in pitch, "I, um, I'm kinda cuffed over here."

"With your own cuffs?" Kate asked hopefully. 

"Yeah."

"Do you have your extra pair of keys?" Kate asked, her hope growing.

"Extra keys?" Doug squeaked.

There. Hope stomped. Then everything went dark, "Kate. Your eyes stopped glowing." One of the men said.

"I can't see anymore either." Kate admitted, "Was it, you know…"

"On a street in daylight, no. It wouldn't be noticeable." Michael cut in.

"Ow?" A female voice groaned from what Kate could only assume was the far right corner of whatever van they were in. "Oh god I've been kidnapped."

Kate could almost see Michael lean back passively, "You sound like an adult to me." He joked.

"Is this really the time?" Doug asked Kate's question for her.

"Who are you people?" The female asked.

"Doug, New York police department. Taken right outside the station. First vampires now this, I swear we need better security."

"I'm Michael, New York…wait a sec, I don't even live here." Michael let out a low chuckle for some seriously bad timing.

"I'm Kate, Michael sister. We were taken when we were in Darill's bar with some friends…who are you?"

"Um, Alex, well Alexis anyway. I got hit in the back of the head when I was fumbling for my apartment keys in my bag." Alex squeaked. "I should've never bought that bag."

Michael snorted, "Wasn't the bag. No other reason to drive about halfway across town to just get Kate and me here. Oh yessir we were targeted. Only damn thing that makes sense."

Kate sunk back and closed her eyes. Within seconds her newfound senses told her they had stopped. She was about to tell the others when two doors opened, revealing a good six well build men with black masks. Two rushed in and grabbed Alex and duck taped her mouth. Two more and they grabbed Michael, who swiveled his head and grinned at Kate. With a slick movement Michael struck out with both his elbows and then his fists were a flying.

The two men staggered out of Michaels reach and a third came forward, ducking under a blow and driving his shoulder into Michaels stretched armpit and threw him to the ground. Before Kate knew it she was taken out as well and finally realized that Doug was the only one whose hands were bound.

And for good reason.

Doug strained against his handcuffs and with a snap they broke under the pressure. He rushed out of the van and hefted one of the masked men. As big as Doug was, and he was big, Doug should not have been able to hurl the man. But fly through the air the man did, for over ten meters until a blankly white wall stopped the propelled man.

Doug hit another man and Kate winced at the bone shattering sound the mans jaw made. As Doug was extended more men rushed from the only visible door, at least five, maybe six. Kate felt dizzy.

Doug punched another man and suddenly Michael was up on his feet. Doug charged and lowered his shoulder like a linebacker and hell, he might have well been a wrecking ball. Men flung at him and he slammed into them with all the force of a Mac truck. Kate briefly fought against her captors, only to realize they were on the ground, groaning in Doug's warpath.

Then the blow darts came. And that sucked. Kate felt it tingle in her neck, and then she didn't feel anything. The last thing she saw was Doug, who had at least four the things sticking out of his back. The last thing she felt were arms lifting her and dragging her away.

Kate awoke and felt, rested. Like one of those mornings where you get just the right amount of sleep, it took her several seconds to realize she was somewhere other than her bed. And generally that's a bad thing.

"The blonde girl is awake." A strained voice came from her far left. It was a man, and probably one of the men Doug hit by the sounds of his heavy breathing. No one answered but Kate felt some one approach and before she could see the face a bright light was stuck in one of her eyes, then in the other. It made her eyes water.

"What the fuck…" Kate mumbled incoherently.

"Ms. Morrison. Don't be overtly alarmed. No harm will come to you." A female's voice. It was gentle and somehow sincere, like a mother. "Your friends are all right as well. In fact we've gathered you all here for a very momentous occasion."

"Not a bar mitzvah is it?" Michael struggled to chuckle at his own joke.

"Mr. Morrison. How pleasant to see you are awake as well." The woman said, same gentleness, same sincerity. Since when did bad guys get acting classes?

"That's what all the girls say." Michael snorted. At least he was talking clearly, which was more to be said than Kate could manage, "You've got a really good reason for kidnapping the four of us. Oh wait, don't strain yourself sharing your entire evil plan with me, I mean," Michael sighed, "Awh hell I've lost my train of thought."

The woman smiled softly, "There is no evil here." The woman cooed, "We have searched for you four for a very long time."

"Kate?" Doug mumbled from someplace to Kate's right. "Ugh my head…"

"Doug?" Kate said softly. She tried to turn her head but her neck felt very stiff and unresponsive. "You okay?"

"Yeah…" Doug coughed, "You should see their guys."

Michael laughed, "Oh yeah man! We took them down a notch or two!"

Kate could feel Doug smile a little. The woman interrupted the two men's celebration, "There is a war coming. The first battle took place a day ago on a remote island outside the Mediterranean. Whoever took care of that problem we owe our thanks too. When our forces got there the castle situated in the center of the island had been utterly destroyed."

"Huzzah for the home team." Michael laughed, "What does this have to do with the four of us?"

"You," The woman continued without acknowledging Michael, "were our first batch of soldiers bred to fight demons for the sake of humanity. There have been more afterwards. Even now we are working towards artificially creating demons under our control. But until then you serve as our line of defense against this invasion."

"That's why I'm so strong." Doug said weakly.

"Why I can sense things regular people can't?"

"Why I rock so much." Michael finished. Oh course, all that sounded like was a jumble of incoherent nonsense when strung together at the same time.

There was a bursting sound, like a badass opening both doors at the same time when one would suffice. But the man who entered looked neither badass nor even remotely threatening. Sure, broad shoulders, but a monocle and a dinky little notebook tucked under his hunched armpit, "You h-h-have them?" The man asked.

The woman turned, "Agnus. Your Order was not supposed to be here until next week"

"We h-h-have had s-s-some question about your r-r-r-research." Agnus answered.

The woman smiled, "Of course. Please come with me to my office."

The woman followed Agnus out of the room, but at least five men remained, four in each corner and one directly in front of the only door. Kate wanted to rub her head and close her eyes. Since that wasn't really an option she merely said, "Escape plan anyone?"

She heard Michael laugh. Could her brother take anything seriously? She could barely hear Alex breathing slowly. Kate could feel the seething anger coming off Doug in waves. Kate decided recon was in order.

The five men were build exactly the same, and upon closer inspection were, for all intensive purposes, the same man. Oddly, or not so oddly they all looked a little like Doug, minus the hair and emotion and what one might possibly call humanity. They looked harder and stronger than the men that had brought them in. Kate could tell Doug would not so easily bowl them over as he did their captors. But apparently none of them were pushovers either. Positive thinking.

"You'd think Dante would be here by now?" Michael mumbled. The man by the door had his ears peak immediately and he briskly walked out of the room, "Ok, you think it was something I said?"

Doug shrugged as much as a tied down man could, "I doubt it. I mean, Dante has been hiding for years. If demons couldn't see it I don't know if humans could."

Kate's brain hurt from thinking, "That's because they don't think like humans." She explained her thinking, "We have things like income tax, birth records, death records. Just looking for the oddities of Dante's life, like having no family we know of, is enough to set their suspicions."

Alex sighed, "Makes sense."

Michael snorted, "So the princess awakens. Had a pleasant nap did you?"

Kate rolled her head and stretched her neck, "Shut up."

In an excellent maneuvering of timing all four of them shut their mouths just as the woman reentered the white room, followed soon after by the guard who had overheard them.

"Dante." The woman said simply, "Where is this Dante?"

"I call him Dante." Michael chuckled, "I'll show you mine if you show me yours."

A flash of disgust crossed the woman's face, but it was soon overruled by the same sincere and maternal gaze she had planted on her face ever since Kate had awoken, "I have something to show you." She outstretched her hand as a sixth guard entered with a trolley carrying television. As soon as it stopped it began playing.

There was Dante, in all his red leathery glory. The shot appeared to be taken from a roof looking over an alley that Kate could only assume was still in the Slums. Dante strutted down the alley as shadows followed him. It was Craig Wenners pack. Dante had once said that he had heard of a pack of vampires located in Baltimore or somewhere that numbered in the low teens, but this one looked very much like a small army. At least sixteen different shadows followed his simultaneously.

"This is Dante?" the woman asked.

The video continued as Dante withdrew his two handguns from his pockets and turned. One of the vampires jumped and came into light. It was an officer that Kate had noted missing almost eight months earlier, however that didn't matter as Dante turned to the left and shot him in the head.

In fact Dante seemed perfectly at ease with single bullets to the skull. He was never touched, never hurried and never, never ever, anything but calm and controlled. So controlled that even the fact that they were inhuman did not stop Kate for feeling sorry for the pack. He was their worst nightmare and he wasn't even trying.

The woman in the room stared at the screen as though it was the first time she was seeing the images as well. As vampires fell she twitched and sweated. Dante made her nervous. Kate could smell the anxiety coming off her in waves. Good to know she was human at least.

"I…we cannot allow a person of this much power to go undocumented." The woman mumbled under her breath, "What is he?"

One of the men came forward, "Ma'am," He said, and then he coughed a little, "We tried to bring him in."

"How many men did you send?" the woman asked, ignoring Kate and the others.

"Seven, normal recovery procedure ma'am."

"You have him?"

"He killed them all." The man coughed again and looked away, "there is footage if you would…"

"No." the woman said abruptly, "I do not think I would like to see that."

Kate felt her eyes burn a little as a massive light shone over her, and soon it became the shadow of a man. Then the man in the purple coat peered down at her. He didn't say anything, but for the first time he looked about the room like he didn't quite know where he was. No one noticed his presence, upon closer inspection it seemed time had stopped. Kate looked hard at the doorway for a minute and contemplated just getting up and leaving, but she doubted that this worked like that.

Looking down like that you'd think the man's monocle would fall off, but it didn't. He snarled, like an overprotective pit bull when his eyes wavered on the gentle sounding woman in the center of the room. He ran his hand through his hair and it stood up in spikes. She noticed a tear fall from his cheeks, and then another. He looked down at her one last time before drifting off into black mist.

There was a smacking sound as the doors swung and hit the walls they were connected to before falling to the ground from the force. The guard by the door spun around immediately. Before he was even halfway around he was on his ass four feet away. "Rescue anyone?" Kate heard Dante crow happily.

The woman stood stock still, "Demon…" She whispered. The woman lunged with surprising speed. Dante was faster and he spun and sidestepped at the same time. As he stopped one of his pistols appeared from behind his coat and was pointed at the approaching guard from the far right corner of the room. The pistol clicked and Dante smirked as the man stopped in mid stride and fell on his face for cover.

The three other men rushed at Dante. Dante put his right hand on the hilt of the massive broadsword, the one he called Rebellion, and all three men stopped. Ignoring them Dante rushed forward and sent the broadsword straight through Alex's restraints. She grumbled to her feet but dared not move. Dante proceeded to cut all of them loose as the five men and the gentle woman stood there, probably scared out of their wits.

The woman rose to block the door, but dove out of the way as Doug led the four hybrids out of the room, leaving Dante to see to whatever he was going to see to. Kate followed Alex and was followed by Michael as Doug pounded through two men and just kept running. Dante was not behind them.

Kate heard a woman scream. Her legs just kept moving. She began hearing automatic fire coming from behind her and a whole lot more screaming.

"Oi!" Michael called as he ducked into a side room of whatever hospital like facility they were running, practically aimlessly, through. Kate screeched to a halt and turned her head. Doug stopped and he stopped Alex. Kate followed Michael into the medium sized room filled with computers and monitors.

"What is this?" Kate asked.

"Research I'm guessing." Michael answered, "Answers maybe?"

"Shouldn't we be running?" Alex hesitated to ask.

Michael shrugged her off and booted up the closest monitor. Doug closed the door and peered through the rectangular window above the handle, "Be quick," He said, "I don't really like this place much."

Michael scoffed, "Who does? Oh now would you look at this, a file, I love files. Kate?"

Kate flicked her hair out of her face and sat down beside Michael. She began reading copious amounts of text. Answers had really come.

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	11. Chapter 11

I don' own Devil May Cry

I don' own Devil May Cry

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Kate never liked ledges. They seemed very final for some reason, even now as she sat on one, her feet dangling off the thirty some odd floor of a small skyscraper. She peered down, her eyes glowed and she could see the each person's bundle of sweaters and scarves clear enough to make out designers if she actually knew any. The storm that wasn't a storm still raged over New York, though it had settled for high winds rather than massive dumping on snow each morning. Maybe it was better down there, sheltered by civilization and large amounts of concrete housing, it wasn't the jumping down that scared Kate, it was the fact that she just might survive.

Being the demon spawn, or technically, demonically injected human hybrid thing, would do that to a person. Species twenty-six, species eleven and species five. The ones Dante had called Blades, Shadows, and Plasma's. The problem with mad scientists is that they add too much too fast, and Kate's generation, the first of three, were given too much power and became imbalanced. Hence Michaels odd power. Kate didn't know anything about the last two but Dante had surmised that Blades had insanely good senses, as they often dove underground and came up right in front of you, which was attuned to Kate's current powers.

The three generations they had been called. Michael, Kate and their sister had been a part of the first, which was the grandest and largest failure of the three. Kate and Michael were the only two left, and their sister was the only one of the five subjects to die outside of the first twelve years they spent being tested and experimented on. The second generation was the only one to actually fall under the control of whoever designed the tests, all injected with species eleven, the Shadow. After that they tried to mix it up a bit and the third generation came from two different species in different combination across all five patients. Doug and Alex were comprised of what was assumed to be an adolescent Phantom and a Frost, and a Fallen and a Hell Vanguard respectively. No other generation existed after that, and the rest of Doug's generation was dead as well. The researchers did however, begin injecting normal humans with demon blood as well, giving them lesser amounts of superhuman speed and strength, which accounted for the guards they had. Demonic blood and behavior control hormones abound.

Twelve years of captivity and back to the parents so they'd at least grow into human beings with enough compassion not to turn on those that changed them. What they hadn't expected was for Michael to become worldly, and for two of them to become regular old cops.

What they were really looking for was what they called species number one. The final species they learned of they aptly names number one, as it was the most important. It was elusive and on the point of extinction, they surmised only dozens, perhaps fewer, were left. To inject a fetus with species number one blood would create something more powerful than anything they had previously attempted. According to the research they had not come close to finding one, but they'd found what was in ones wake, at a monastery just north of Beijing, it wasn't pretty.

Two days after they had been captured and rescued by Dante Michael was already out with Trish at some fancy restaurant and Doug was using every pull he had at the station to make sure Alex was safe. It left Kate alone for two days; two days to sit and think, and too much thinking makes one a little crazy.

Dante had left again on a little personal mission. Yesterday they all got a call that Caleb still wasn't back yet and that Dante thought something was wrong, so he took the muscle car he apparently owned (or rather, Enzo owned) and was heading down the interstate to Miami. He was going to call when he got there, and again when he found Caleb. Wallace had mentioned wanting to see the wizards faces when Dante barged in.

Speaking of Dante Kate was having a stupid time wrapping her mind around him. She had, despite evidence to the contrary, had always though of him as at least human. The woman from the facility had called him a demon; so had her landlord's wife, who was possessed and deposed of. His actual abilities were beginning to sink in, especially the video where Dante utterly decimated a small army of vampires without a sweat. She was beginning to think that his hyperbole on the King of the Underworld wasn't at all a hyperbole.

Kate wasn't exactly a fan of her manifesting powers. Especially with the noise and smells of New York City enveloping her whenever she closed her eyes. But it helped her hear the approaching footsteps.

"Whatcha doin' up here?" Wallace announced himself with a usual swagger Kate had come to associate with a Redgrave. Kate answered by intently examining the street below. She could feel the vibrations in the air as Wallace shook his head, "Very melodramatic of you. Why don't we go back to the office and talk?" Was that fear in his voice?

"We can talk here." Kate said. She didn't look at Wallace, she didn't need to see him to know he was moving towards her still, quieter than before.

"Alright then." Wallace succumbed, "At least off the ledge?"

Kate pushed herself up and jumped down from the top of the building and leant against the ledge she had been sitting on and crossed her arms disapprovingly.

"So you're a part human, part demon hybrid." Wallace stated.

Kate craned her neck to the left, "Gee, now I feel all warm and fuzzy inside. Thanks for the pep talk."

"We've been there." Wallace shrugged.

"Has Dante called yet?" Kate changed the subject.

"Yeah," Wallace answered, "He called earlier this morning. He drives fast. And don't change the subject. We're talking about you now."

"I'm fine." Kate muttered.

"Says the woman leaning over the ledge." Wallace said, "Can you imagine finding something like this when you're fourteen?"

"I guess not." Kate muttered again.

"That's when I found out." Wallace explained, "I nearly drank my first girlfriend dry. And look at me now."

"You're psychotic?"

"Relatively speaking. Frankly I'm fine, and given time so will you be." Wallace shrugged and looked away from Kate, "It'll take some time, and things will happen to you that you won't like, but it'll end eventually. Hell you've got about five, six hybrids around you. I had no one until I met Dante. Relatively speaking you're lucky."

"Say relatively more." Kate jested, probably.

"Relatively speaking, you sound like a bitch."

"Ooh, good one." Kate laughed.

So did Wallace.

The next morning Kate woke up in her apartment. She tried really, really hard not to wake Wallace up from beside her. He was part vampire though, and those vampires could be heavy sleepers. She rumbled downstairs into what once was her landlords house and now her official office space for being a detective. Which was awesome.

Kate sat in one of Dante's old leather chairs he had given her. You should have seen her answer the door and have him standing there with a housewarming gift in the form of a chair and a table in one hand, and his sword on his back. Funnier if you were there.

Unlike Dante however, Kate had resigned herself to a modern phone, one with caller i.d and message recording. "Hey." Wallace announced from behind her.

He was shirtless, which didn't help Kate's memory much. Kate slumped against the table and waited.

"I should go?" Wallace thumbed in the direction of the door.

Kate sighed a little; her mouth was too dry for her tastes, "Maybe." She licked her lips, they were dry too.

"Are we going to talk about…" Wallace thumbed in the direction of the door upstairs.

"Maybe."

"Anything definitive?"

"Not now."

Hours after Wallace drifted out the door Michael returned without Trish. He had dropped her by the office that morning for work before coming home. Shortly after Doug and Alex, carrying a couple bags of what Kate hoped would be breakfast. She looked at the clock, brunch apparently.

"So it looked like we all had the same general idea." Michael said as they sat around Kate's front desk, "My name is Michael and I'm a half human half demon hybrid. I've been sober for six weeks."

Doug barked a laugh, "This isn't AA bud."

Kate sank deeply into her chair, "They're looking to you." Other-Kate muttered from behind her.

Kate didn't say anything, "I know, but you're the one whose the cop, the private detective, the first one to have powers manifest. Michael and Doug might not even know it but they're looking to you to make a move so they can back it up."

"Why can't they just take charge?"

"Doug thinks he's too young. Michael doesn't really feel like failing so he's trying to be the snide, sarcastic one." Other-Kate assessed, "I mean Doug is strong, Michael is fast, knows when people are lying and god knows what else, and no one knows what Alex is capable of but none of them want to lead, and you are the one who found Dante, and brought them all together."

"Force field." Kate said, "I can feel it around her, I doubt she's even aware of it, but a shield of kinetic energy is all around her, protecting her. That's what Alex can do." Kate looked at the girl even harder. She wasn't big, but bigger than Kate was. Taller too, and with long brown hair pulled back in a ponytail that just strained her forehead and pushed her cheekbones up like she was a predatory bid. She made Kate feel more than a little self conscious, as many petite girls like her did when confronted with a well-curved woman. All in all she was pretty, and Kate didn't much like the way Doug looked at her. No more the object of his affection Kat was.

"Just like what the Fallen can put in front of their wings." Other-Kate surmised.

"How do we know that?"

Other-Kate opened her mouth, and then closed it. The was a brief flicker in reality and Michaels moving mouth suddenly began making sound again, "Anyone thinking, hey, we should start a superhero group. I mean we could have a watchtower and everything."

Doug rolled his eyes, "This is serious."

"So is robbing a bank." Michael retorted, "Hey, we could probably do that."

"Shut up." Kate said quietly. "What we know is that we were made…changed to fight a war Dante may have stopped or slowed down."

"Um," Alex interjected, "Who is Dante?"

"Guy in red," Michael said, "Saved all our asses a couple days ago."

"And what is he?" Alex asked.

They all looked at her, and then their eyes turned to Kate, who squirmed a little in her seat, "He, I think, is a half demon like us. Well, born that way maybe."

"But he's a good guy right?"

"He has a good guy streak about him," Michael said, "Seems to me like he's just defending his turf. With, you know, superhuman powers and whatnot."

"Whichever." Doug muttered, "He's on our side and the other team is demons, bad wizards, and weird ass scientists."

"Hey." Michael laughed, "Well that's all settled. I propose an ambush. You know, call the demons some bad names and see what we're all capable of."

Alex blinked, "Are you…joking again?"

Michael smiled, "Why not? I don't mean, like, go up to the biggest badass demon we can find but a think we could take a pack of whatever was at that bar."

"Dante called them Hell Prides and Hell Lusts. Apparently there eight of them, one for each of the seven sins and a upper echelon Vanguard type guy." Kate explained.

Doug craned his neck to the left and then to the right, "I'm up for it, so long as we don't get ourselves killed. Kate?"

"I…" Kate began. She looked at Michael, who was nodding in agreement before she even said anything, and Doug, who didn't look like the doughy-eyed rookie she thought he was. Alex looked like a small puppy stuck out in the cold. "We bring Wallace and Trish, just in case."

Michael hollered for a second before feeling extremely foolish. Doug looked at the table gravely, like it was his own tombstone. Alex didn't move. Kate didn't much like bringing Alex straight into the fire, but as far as they knew it, the fire was right in front of them and there wasn't a damn thing they could do about it. They'd better learn what they could do before something big and bag decided to burn them to death.

And so, guns a ready, they all crammed into a cab and followed a plowing truck almost all the way to Dante's office. Wallace was there, sitting across from Trish, as Kate could see from the front doors windows. She motioned everyone to stop and reached out with her new senses.

"You slept with her?" Trish asked, sort of.

"I already told you I did." Wallace replied.

"In the same bed?" Trish continued.

"Yes,"

"Clothes?"

"For a time."

"How was it?" Trish asked.

Wallace shrugged, "Aside from the insane emotional backlash this morning just wonderful."

Trish's eyes widened, "Emotional?"

"You know, or maybe you wouldn't, but anyways she says, hey, nothing definitive, we just had sex and all but don't worry too much since it's all about me."

"And you rebuked her claims?" Trish raised her eyebrow.

"I left." Wallace said sullenly, "Honestly, have you ever met a woman that hasn't wanted a relationship after something like that?"

"No." Trish said.

"You suck at this." Wallace said, "I wish Dante were here."

"He called." Trish brought up.

"When?" Wallace stammered, "And really, why'd you leave that out?"

"You wanted to talk." Trish answered.

"Not when something important is going on."

Kate took a step back. Something important huh. She barely even registered opening the door. She did, however, register the look of pure terror on Wallace's face, "Dante called?" Kate said.

"Yes. He and Caleb had been attacked by a dark wizard." Trish explained, "Caleb won the day."

"Good ole Caleb, very good at the whole making things blow up." Wallace muttered, "So when are they going to be back."

"They said a couple more days." Trish answered, "New York cannot be reached by teleporting means, whatever darkness is making this storm is magically baring any wizard from teleporting in or out. As Caleb is one of maybe three wizards in the entire city that can actually teleport outside of their line of sight it is a moot point."

"It'll be a moot point when these dark wizards are dead." Wallace said under his breath.

"We want to go on a mission." Kate said, rather abruptly.

"Mhm." Michael chirped in from the sidelines.

Trish looked perplexed and Wallace was smiling that vampiric smile of his, with the canines showing and all, "I…We do have a mission right Trish?"

"Well no." Trish said, "But there was a sighting last night, nothing formal, but it could be something demonic."

"Consider it closed babe." Michael chirped in again, and Trish actually smiled, "Round up the gear everybody we're going hunting…where?"

And so Michael stood, waiting to be answered as Wallace practically grew out of his chair and slung that pump action shotgun of his over his shoulder. He grabbed what could be estimated at a bazillion daggers and snuck them into every nock and cranny his Armani looking long coat could hold. Doug hunched his way over to the gun rack, which had mysteriously grown larger since Kate had last seen it, holding Alex's hand. He slid magazines into a pistol too small for the clip and attached a cord around it and grabbed a sword, not a massive one like what Dante slung along his backbone but big enough. After that he slid the gun into the depths of his zip-up hoodie, effectively hiding it from public view. Alex didn't take a gun, but she took a largish dagger and hung it at her hip. She didn't look like she was going to move from Doug's side. That left Trish, who had two pistols remarkably similar to Dante's, Michael, who snatched a relatively ornate sword with a ruby at it's hilt and put into over his back in imitation of Dante, except he actually had a sling on it.

Kate sort of swayed towards keeping her own pistol, which was convienently attached to her hip beneath her shirt. With Wallace and Doug looking like veritable arsenals she didn't much care for more firepower, but who the hell knew what they'd get into. And she might have the same super speed or strength Michael seemed to have mastered. They had, after all, come from the same three demons. She grabbed a dagger, or a small sword, she didn't know which, and stuck it where no one could see it, and it was cold.

Bearing with them battalions worth of armaments the five hybrids and whatever the hell Trish was set out in one of Enzo's assumingly many cars. Except Wallace, who just loved the motorcycle. He veered through traffic like no ones business, and one would think there would be ice on the roads after the previous nights light rainfall and nigh freezing temperatures, which reminded Kate of Wallace, in bed, and she tried to focus. Damn him.

Kate was in the passenger seat. Trish was the only one who knew where they were going so she was half driving half distracted by Michael's roaming hands behind her. Kate looked out the window on much less disgusting images. There was a couple drinking coffee together, god damn it.

Trish pulled into some warehouse district and began inching along the industrial street, "Where is Wallace?" She asked peevishly. Kate looked around. Holy hell he was gone.

Michael jumped from the car and bolted forward with that peak human borderline superhuman speed he had. Ducking into a side alley between two massive warehouses he began climbing what could possibly be the most rusted ladder ever. Within seconds of leaving the confines of the car he was perched atop a three-story warehouse surveying the land.

He made an offhand gesture to his right, or Kate's left and Trish pulled into the left street and went a steady thirty until Wallace, leaning against the motorcycle, was waiting for them. Michael jumped from the building with no ill effects. Massive jumps, check and possible, sweet.

Wallace made a knowing gesture as Michael jogged back to the group, which could be considered an Olympic athletes sprint. Kate unleashed all of the senses she knew she had and smelled something before any of her other senses picked anything up, it was a mixture of burning flesh and what she assumed would be brimstone.

Even with only a smell Kate began tracking, like a canine, to the north. There they found a burnt dockworker, who looked like a big chunk of him had been eaten, by something big. Everyone had their guns ready, and Kate could have sworn she saw electrical spark fly from Trish's forearms to her guns. Alex looked scared out of her wits and nearly bolted, had Doug not been behind her to catch her.

"Haven't you seen the movies?" Doug soothed, "You don't run away from the group in these situations. Besides, I'm here."

Michael snorted, "Don't forget about me, nothing is going to happen when someone as good looking as I is around."

Trish shushed them and stared at a single spot for about a minute as Wallace inspected the corpse, "Shit." He muttered.

Kate slowly strutted up behind Wallace, as his words incited the idea that they should make a semi circle around the body and all look for signs of them about to be crushed to death by something really bad. "What is it?" Kate asked.

Wallace stood and pointed his shotgun into the air, "Everyone take cover." And everyone except Kate did, who stubbornly stood beside Wallace for some reason. "Let's flush this thing out." He fired into the air and pumped another gauge into the chamber. "C'mon out bitch! Afraid of us?" He cried. And something answered.

At first Kate thought it was an elephant, then she thought it was a spider, then she decided on an elephant sized volcanic spider that jumped far higher than it should be able to. Except it fell to short and slammed into the warehouse Trish had been staring at. It rumbled from the ruins and rubble and roared.

"You dare mock me?" It cried, "You weak mortals!"

There was a buildup of fire in the things mouth and it spat a fireball as large as Caleb straight at Wallace. Wallace laughed and leapt into the air, soaring over the fireball with grace that put Kate to shame.

Alex cried out in protest and the fireball slammed into an invisible barrier not five feet from the stunned Kate. Then everyone opened fire and everything went to hell.

Michael, being fast, was already at the full-grown Phantoms left flank and spat an entire clip into one of its legs. Sadly an adjective like spat really doesn't say much for the impact he inflicted. As Michael was doing this, however, Wallace had landed close to the Phantom and fired point blank into one its front legs, sending the thing tripping over itself into the ground.

What Kate thought was a good start turned out to be a bad start as the Phantoms head slammed into the ground and a small pillar of fire erupted from the ground where Trish had been a second before, and Trish fired her twin handguns with some electrical charges of her own. Lightning demon maybe? Not a great time to be thinking about Trish.

Doug skipped backwards, keeping Alex behind him until they had ducked behind a warehouse and Doug began firing from cover. Alex didn't seem ready to do much other than cover her ears and sink to the ground.

Michael was having a blast, especially after he figured out that the Phantom was far too slow for him. He raced in a full circle around the creature, sending another clip into the body of the Phantom. Kate dropped to one knee and squeezed off only a few rounds, but each one hit the Phantom square in the head. She felt the Phantom begin to leap into the air almost before it crouched low. As it soared Doug stepped forward straight into its landing spot.

He moved at the last possible second, and as the Phantom regained its composure Doug grasped one of the things legs. Kate was surprised he wasn't burnt. With something akin to a war cry Doug lifted the Phantoms leg off the ground and then, to everyone's amazement, the rest of the demon followed. Doug was apparently very strong.

Wallace and Trish stood agape as Doug tried to hurl the Phantom, only to have it slam into the ground not three meters from where Doug was. Then he staggered backwards and fell.

Alex rushed to him and the street beneath them took on an entirely liquid visage as the Phantom's scorpion-like tail grew from its behind and struck out at them. As it came closer Alex and Doug drifted into the street and appeared seconds later on the rooftop of the adjacent warehouse.

But that tail was not done its work and it quickly hurtled towards Kate. Kate thought she had moved with Michael's speed for a second when she realized she was sensing everything about two or three seconds before it even happened. Wallace came up to the Phantoms face and sent one round into its skull before ducking under its swipes and jumping away.

Trish had charged her guns again and fired, sending almost unperceivable flinches through the enemy. Michael supplemented that by jumping onto the things back and letting loose.

Wallace cried out the obvious, "God, does this thing not die?" Then bad things happened.

With a familiar crashing sound almost a dozen Hell Prides appeared and lumbered towards Kate specifically. She crouched low and fired while moving backwards. She had only killed two before she was up against the far side of the loading area. Michael raced across the loading zone until he was right in front of one of the Hell Prides. Even as the Pride rose his scythe Michael sent a good half dozen bullets into its sandy brain before turning the rest on the clip onto the others.

Wallace fired two more shots into the Phantom and it cried out in pain, or irritation, it was hard to tell. Doug, as it turned out, was not entirely unconscious and he began firing blindly from the rooftop. Alex sank into the floor and appeared out of the wall by Kate as the Prides closed in. Grabbing Kate Alex sank both of them back into the wall and came out of the middle of the loading zone.

Luckily that was nowhere near any demons currently trying to kill them.

Kate felt numbness in her arm and looked down at it, dropping her pistol to the street with a clang. It had turned black and became much more like a spear point than an arm, which didn't make Kate feel too good.

She raised it towards the eight or so remaining Prides and swung horizontally, as if her arm was a baseball bat. The blackness extended ten or so feet and decapitated the closest three Prides. Before she could try her backswing Kate's arm had returned to normal. Hadn't Shadows been able to change their bodies like that?

Trish swept through the remaining Prides quickly with bullets to the head for all. No charge. She took a deep breath and turned to where Michael was keeping the Phantom occupied by quick movements and the occasional, "Hey is that all you got?"

Trish leapt into the air and came crashing down on the Phantoms spine, causing bits of rock to go flying, but the Phantom just howled and bucked her off like a cowboy on a bull. Michael was the only clown to save her as he sped underneath her and caught her before her head slammed into concrete.

As much as Kate didn't really want to admit it but they didn't seem to do much other than piss the Phantom off.

This was proved by a highflying Michael, spinning end over end, just as though he had been struck by something large and spider-like. No one could catch him in time and he struck against the brick and concrete wall of one of the loading zone warehouses. He slumped to the ground and didn't get up.

Wallace spun quickly and fired into the Phantoms leg, and then it's under belly. Then he just sort of went crazy and fired a good dozen and a half times before the Phantom even got over the fact that the fight wasn't over. The Phantom shuddered.

Caleb slammed on the brakes and the muscle car stopped slightly in front of Trish's car. He got out and Kate saw him seize his massive staff and thrust it outwards. The Phantom didn't move or try to dodge and the invisible block of energy slammed into the demon. The beast flew with a groan into the ruins of the previously destroyed warehouse.

Kate took it as a change of pace and so did everyone else. They began pouring bullets into the struggling Phantom. It looked confused more than anything. Then Dante appeared before it and it recognized him.

With a mighty swing the Phantoms front leg caught Dante on his shoulder and Dante fell to one knee. "I sensed something bigger." The creature mocked. Then Dante tore the leg off and stood up.

As the Phantom staggered back Dante sized the elephant sized spider up, "You all sound the same." He dashed forward and sent a fist straight into the Phantoms jaw with a sickening crack and flung his arm back into a pose, "Try and touch me." Dante roared.

And the Phantom spat its fireball at the close Dante. But Dante crouched and there was a clang and then a whoosh of air as the fireball exploded and Dante stood in some sort of judo stance, completely unscathed. Dante dusted off his red coat and laughed heartily. The Phantom backed away. Dante jumped and hovered above the Phantom for a second before he came tumbling down. Sword first.

The Phantom shrieked, a totally unbecoming thing for a Phantom, plus it spewed some molten rock that would've hit Wallace had he not been looking that way. Dante stood atop the Phantom as it fell to the ground and began burning itself to ashes with its own lava, which really doesn't make sense. Dante flew from the decaying demon and landed deftly beside Wallace and was sure to turn coolly to allow Caleb to mutter his way to Dante's other flank, his staff burning a little at the top end.

Kate watched as Doug jumped from the warehouse landing beside Alex and Trish, who were both watching the demon intently, as though it'd just get up again. Michael jogged his way over to the group at a human pace, holding the back of his head and his gun gone.

Dante pointed at the dying Phantom and hollered, "I beat down your King. You think you had a chance!"

The Phantom wailed finally and blew away as ashes in the breeze.

Caleb twirled his staff, sending smoke everywhere. "So, what's a Phantom doing here?"

Dante shrugged, "They're supposed to be too strong to pass over the shield."

"Summoned?" Trish supplied.

"You know the kind of foci you need to raise something like that? And to actually control it?" Caleb said.

Dante put his hand to his chin and his other hand on the opposing elbow and swayed forward a little, "The same kind you need to keep up a magical storm for weeks."

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End file.
